BuaNews (Tshwane)
Gabi Khumalo
18 December 2008
Pretoria — The Tlhokomela Ugogo noMkhulu Project, which aims to promote intergenerational relations between young and older persons and enhance social cohesion, will be launched on Tuesday.
The project will be launched during an event where youth will gather at the Odi Stadium in Mabopane, north of Pretoria, to hand out Christmas gifts to the elderly from old age homes.
Youth volunteers have been conducting door-to-door campaigns to identify older persons who should receive the gifts from the department. They will come from Mabopane, Mamelodi, Soshanguve, Atteridgeville, GaRankuwa, Stinkwater, Makapanstad, Hammanskraal as well as Madidi.
The Tlhokomela Ugogo noMkhulu Project, which means caring for our elders, is the brainchild of Mabopane youth who came up with the idea in response to the department's call for communities to care and support older persons.
They wanted to hold an event which would celebrate the contributions of older persons to society while at the same time raising awareness about their special needs.
The event will also be attended by Deputy Minister for Social Development Dr Jean Swanson-Jacobs, the Executive Mayor of Tshwane Dr Gwen Ramokgopa and Madibeng Local Municipality Mayor Sophy Molokoane-Machika.
During the event, the Gauteng Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency will be rendering services to the elders.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya recently urged all South Africans to work together in caring and supporting older persons. Caring for the elderly should be seen as everybody's responsibility and part of a bid to preserve the nation's history and rich cultural heritage, he said at the close of Social Development Month in October.
The minister said by taking care of the elderly, history, culture and the heritage of the country was being preserved as the elderly are their custodians. Dr Skweyiya said that older persons played a critical role in the upbringing of children, particularly during the period when there are still high levels of poverty, HIV and AIDS, unemployment and other forms of vulnerability affecting children.
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