Uganda
HelpAge has worked in Uganda since the early 1990s with its affiliate the Uganda Reach the Aged Association (URAA) and other partners. Our work includes:
- improving the social and economic security of vulnerable older people
- ensuring older people are included in emergency responses
- supporting the Government of Uganda on issues of social protection and developing Uganda's national policy on ageing
- putting in place, as part of national consortium the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE), two forms of cash grants - based on a household entitlement and a universal pension for people over the age of 65.
The difference we made in 2009-10
- HelpAge distributed 300 packages of essential items and 350 goats to 300 extremely vulnerable older persons in Gulu.
- The long-awaited national policy on ageing was passed by parliament. A plan of action to implement the policy is now being developed.
- We trained 90 people as paralegals to support older people's inheritance rights. These paralegals supported 414 cases of land rights, marginalisation and domestic violence.
- We formed eight older people's citizen monitoring groups and trained representatives from each group to monitor and gather evidence on the provision of services in their areas.
What next?
- We will support and strengthen health advocacy groups in their bid to ensure older people are included in HIV and AIDS programmes
- We will further develop older people's citizen monitoring groups in Northern Uganda so they can keep track of how effective local government services are.
- We will help to put in place the SAGE programme by developing a robust method of keeping household registers up to date.
Our partners
URAA, CARITAS Gulu, Health Alert Uganda