FOCUS AREA:
Algoa Bay Council for the Aged (Acronym ABCA) is a registered welfare organisation providing a diversity of essential services to the elderly and those with similar needs in the Eastern Cape. The main objective being to render services that enable the aged to remain active and independent in the community. To provide alternatives to frail care and institutionalisation. Focussing on the sub economic elderly surviving on a state pension of R1010 per month. In particular those with little or no family support.
We achieve our goals and objectives by providing the following: 3 easily accessible service centres, open daily providing subsidised midday meals and opportunities for social interaction and volunteerism, benefiting the aged still resident in the community and in particular those who live alone, transport is provided, 2 social workers providing counselling services and advice and alternatives to institutional care which cover the entire Metro area where the most prevalent problems encountered remain poverty, family/relationship breakdown, shortage of suitable/affordable accommodation, abuse and neglect.
An auxiliary work service collecting and delivering repeat medication from hospitals and clinics for housebound elderly, concentrating on sub-economic who cannot afford public transport to visit hospitals on a monthly basis, a home care referral service where trained home carers are placed in the homes of the aged who want to be cared for in their own homes, 90% of all recipients are group 111 who were successfully kept out of institutions or delayed admission to a care facility.
A sponsored home care service for residents of our facilities who are in need of personal care, yet cannot access institutional care for financial (cannot afford) or practical (no vacancies) reasons. Beneficiaries must be classified as sub-economic and have minimal or no family assistance to qualify. A low cost unsubsidised rooming house with 54 furnished rooms accommodating 64 aged who need assisted living, a 322 unit low cost housing scheme which is unsubsidised and accommodates 390 aged persons in self catering units consisting of one bed cottages with bathrooms for couples and bed sitters with communal bathrooms for single persons. 75% of the residents are indigent and survive on a state pension of R1010. Both these facilities remain fully occupied and demand for accommodation is great; the growing waiting list indicating the critical shortage of affordable accommodation for the sub economic in the Metro.
A home help service for those who need help to cope with domestic tasks they can no longer perform as a small measure of assistance keeps them independent and out of institutions. A skills development project where the aged are taught arts and crafts and opportunities are created to sell the articles in order to supplement incomes on a profit sharing basis. Promotional programmes on awareness of and assistance with elder abuse featuring informative brochures in Afrikaans, English and Xhosa as well as a portable display and useful handouts with essential contact details.
Assistance to emerging organisations and groups dealing with the aged in disadvantaged areas, and our social workers manage and are part of networking programmes that focus on alternatives to institutional care, providing support and training opportunities to care givers and support on issues relating to the management of NGO's within the South African environment.
WE NEED:
Funding to install showers and upgrade the bathrooms at Buffelsfontein Village. Adoption of aged by sponsoring meal tickets, i.e. R100 can purchase midday meal tickets for a sub economic aged person for 10 days. Toiletries and cleaning materials. Tyres for ABCA vehicles, the painting and upgrading of 24 wooden windows and doors at Cuylerholme Rooms (our assisted living facility in Central). Burglar proofing for the ground floor at the same facility, sanding and varnishing of the wooden floors at our assisted living facility, making good of the walls and new curtain rails where wooden window frames were replaced with aluminium frames at our assisted living facility in Central.
Read more about CharitySA.co.za - Algoa Bay Council for the Aged by www.charitysa.co.za
