Families Abandon Relations In Old People’s Home

The head of a Lagos old people’s home, Reverend Sister Anthonia Adebowale has complained about how some families bring their elderly ones to the home and abandon them.

The reverend sister oversees the Holy Family Home for the Elderly, located at the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Mushin area of Lagos State.

She complained that sometimes when they try to reach the families of the elderly in their care, they realise that their personal details, such as contact address and phone numbers, are fake.

“They just bring them here and abandon them,” she lamented. The reasons, she said, are not far-fetched.

“Some families find it hard to fend for themselves, let alone aged relations that need special care,” she said.

The home is funded by charity organisations, non-governmental organisations, and the Lagos State government.

The reverend sister said the state government recently donated insecticide-treated nets and wheelchairs to the home. She, however, said the home still lacks a vehicle to help in the day to day running of the home.

Though the home is being run by the Catholic Church, admission is open to the general public. According to Sister Adebowale, all that is needed is for willing residents, who must not be less than 60 years, to apply through Saint Vincent the Poor Society, a group in the church.

The society then considers such requests, and makes recommendations to the home accordingly.

One of the home’s residents, Gwendolyn Hackett, a 90-year-old from the West Indies told P.M.NEWS that she came to Nigeria (although she could not remember when) as a nursing missionary, and when she became too old for the job, she ended up the home.

“I am very happy here and everybody is friendly to me,” she enthused.

She said due to the distance of her home country her relations find it very difficult to visit often, but they come sometimes. She added that Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, the Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos, is a regular vistor to the home.

—Francisca Odogun