How Councils Have improved the lives of Older Women

How Councils Have improved the lives of Older Women

Uganda Reach the Aged Association (URAA) is a membership organisation which works with various Non-Government Organisations, Community Based Organisations, Government bodies and individuals to increase awareness and participation of older persons in Electoral processes.

URAA works in collaboration with the National Council of Older Persons to ensure the visibility of older persons in government and also to eliminate all forms of violence and abuse of older persons in Uganda.

Kazo Angola Elderly Group presenting a song at a URAA Organised workshop

URAA also works with Councils at various levels like the district (LCV), municipal, parish and village levels through building the capacity of leaders mostly of Special Interest Groups who include, Older Persons, Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, most recently URAA trained the SIG members on Social Accountability processes which sought enabled them to work together towards identifying service delivery gaps within their respective Districts.

The Councils are at the forefront of providing monitoring, awareness raising lobby and advocacy for local services that help older persons for example social care, rights protection for older women as well as education through various trainings about important aspects of life and these have made the lives of older persons (especially women who are the majority) better.

The infusion of a closer working relationship between Older Person, Youth, Workers, Women and Persons with Disability Councils have encouraged gender equality through building the capacity of young women and older women by involving them to participate in local decision-making, planning and also sitting on key committees as representatives of older person’s women.

These efforts have also led Councils to increase the visibility of older person’s leaders in the community when they participate in or coordinate field service monitoring visits. The council gives opportunities to older women to be represented on the committees, this enables older Women’s issues to be heard at a higher level and handled by whoever is in charge. This has further led to the creation of awareness at District and sub-county levels for example in Bushenyi Mubende and Kibuku, awareness meetings on civic leadership and education were carried out which improved the leadership skills of older persons (especially women) so they have their voices at the council.

URAA in collaboration with the team of trained Special Interest Groups Leaders and other stakeholders will continue to work hard to ensure that Older Women are listened to at various levels locally, nationally and globally.