Teachers and pupils of Mugumu primary school in Lugari Sub County decided to converge at the home of a 75-year-old widow who had been neglected by her family. This comes after the move by Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to introduce Teachers Performance Appraisal and Development tool (TPAD).
According to the school’s head teacher Mrs. Violet Ananda, following the introduction of the performance contract, her school had set several targets in together with parents, the school’s board of management and other stakeholders to improve education standards and have a conducive learning environment, not forgetting, helping the needy in the community.
She added that under the initiative, the school also aims to improve and conserve the environment within the school and the surrounding areas by planting trees and grasses as well as helping the less fortunate in the society among others goals.
She disclosed that her school targets the needy who have no assistance “Like this home that we have come to here today is a home where a 75-year-old granny is staying alone in isolation after her family abandoned her since she was diagnosed with stroke, a situation that has made her health weaken more, the mama has nobody to help her, we looked at the community, nobody stepped up and we mobilized the school management, pupils, and the teachers to step in and support her.”
She said the school fraternity has decided to pay her a visit, cleaned her compound, clothes and other home related chores.
The Mugumu school fraternity also helped in harvesting and shelling her maize which was rotting on the farm and ploughed a section of the farm in preparation for planting vegetable and also prepared her delicious meal.
They also gave her food donation and money to enable her go for a checkup and buy medicine.
“We have cleaned her house, we have harvested her maize, slashed bushes around her compound, ploughed her land so that we can plant some vegetable for her and we are preparing her supper this evening because she says she does not eat any meal and she only takes a cup of tea which is given to her by a well-wisher, we have also given her food stuff and some cash to help her see a doctor,” explained Mrs. Ananda
On her part, the old lady, Mrs. Lonah Kavulani, was so joyous and thanked Mrs. Ananda and the Mugumu primary school fraternity for visiting her saying the gesture has brought back a smile on her face and a ray of hope in her life.
“I had given up in life with nobody taking care of me, but I thank God there are people who care. I have three daughters but they are all married and they forgot all about me, a situation that still pains me,” Kavulani noted.
She noted that instead of them helping her, they took all her belongings including utensils, cattle, among other things and sold them and none of them want to hear anything about her since she fell ill.
“They have all abandoned me and now I depend on other people. If I do not get help from my immediate neighbor madam Ambani I sleep through the night without eating since I am sick and old and cannot manage any chores, including dressing myself. Whenever I want to change clothes I must look for somebody to help me,” she said.
Mrs. Ananda promised to continue supporting the granny to the best of her ability despite the limited resources she has and at the same time called on well-wishers, the local leader, both the county and national government to intervene and help her get treatment and humanitarian aid.
“This mama should have been enrolled in the older persons’ cash transfer program long time ago but it’s disappointing she has not been given any assistance so I am calling on the national government, county government, area member of parliament and county assembly to come in and help this granny to go to a good hospital and also extend their hand to other such old people who stay alone,” appealed Mugumu school head teacher Mrs. Ananda.
