By Nancy Wagachu
Program Director
CentreSenior Citizen Nursing Centre is a registered nonprofit/non-governmental organization founded in 2015 with a mission to provide quality and dignified care for the aged in Kenya.
The founding members, led by visionary Helen Kariuki, started outreach programs where they visited vulnerable elders in their homes. They provided them with food, clothing, and medical camps every three months. During these visits, they found some elders who needed home-based care. Helen rented a house, moved them in, and employed qualified personnel to provide the necessary care. Many of these elders were very lonely. The first person they took was Juliana from Wells of Hope Centre in Kibagare.
The individuals in the outreach program visit the retirement home twice a month. This is facilitated by Helen through organizing transportation to and from their homes, the activities for the day, catering for the day’s lunch, and providing a take home bag with food supplies. Some of the activities include, but are not limited to, making traditional baskets. They try to market them locally and are hoping to get international buyers.
Helen believes in a society where every older person has a home for tomorrow. “God with us, we want to bring this aspect of loneliness at old age to an end.” However, the number of beneficiaries is very small. Extending our outreach programs and expanding the center will make us achieve more and reduce old age stress.
“Our dream is a center where all older people within our reach can be meeting daily and socialize. Our future plan is to build our own facility to reduce the expenses of renting a house, which is limiting the number of residents”.
“Our success stories moving forward will be reliant on your full financial support and goodwill through donations, sponsorship, and if possible, partnership to help us manage the center. It’s truly evident that loneliness is not a disease, but it kills.”
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