The way we deal with old people says a lot about how we as humans treat each other. In the industrialised world, as the elderly get sick or more frail, they often choose to go to old people's homes, or they are sent there by their children. In the developing world, people tend to keep their elderly relatives at home.
 Yeshi (centre) with two other adopted grannies living in the same compound. |
But some elderly people have no one to care for them or have younger relatives who are even poorer than they are. Yeshi is one of those women. The 75-year-old Ethiopian granny lives in a room, two metres by three metres, in a poor district of the capital, Addis Ababa. She has nothing more than two beds, a pot and a few utensils.
Begging
A decade ago, Yeshi's husband died. Since she couldn't find work, she started begging in a local church. On good days, she got 40 eurocents. But most days she received much less.
Yeshi begged for nine years, until she was adopted by Kitty Penninga, a Dutch woman. "I think it's important to look after elderly people," says Kitty. "I don't think elderly people deserve to live in great poverty and be alone."
 Kitty Penninga |
Bringing people together
Kitty wanted to adopt a granny because she took care of her own parents as they got older. After the death of her own mother in 2003, Kitty went onto the website of an organisation called Dorcas, which helps people adopt grannies. "I wanted to choose an elderly woman in Africa," she says. "I don't know why."
Kitty was struck by Yeshi's face, but also by the fact that despite her poverty, she was helping take care of an adopted daughter and her son.
Kitty knew virtually nothing more about Yeshi, and the two women had never spoken before. We brought them together on The State We're In...
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Tags: adopt, Africa, charity, donation, dorcas, elderly, Ethiopia, family, good cause, grandma, granny, Netherlands, older, relatives, retired