NAMIBIA: Old Timers Will Party on Valentine’s Day

. WINDHOEK, Namibia / New Era / February 12, 2009 By Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Senior citizens at the Katutura Old Age Home are poised to join the rest of the country for the February 14 craze when romantics shower one another with gifts as a sign of love – Valentine’s Day. The St Stephan Rommanna Apostolic Church of Africa in Katutura has scraped together about N$4 500 from own coffers to bring the township’s seniors a feel of Valentine’s Day by hosting a luncheon for them as the day’s highlight. Apart from the planned sumptuous lunch consisting of the main course of chicken, for health reasons, and assorted salads among others, the church’s youth members would be busy the Saturday morning bringing the home and the senior citizens up to scratch for the luncheon. The youths have been gearing up to spend the first half of the day cleaning the home and watering the home’s trees. Residents are not spared the touch-up in preparation for what is probably a once-in-a-lifetime treat of a Valentine lunch with their hairdos attended to, and being treated to a manicure. However, the church and its generous gesture is no stranger to the residents of this home. Some time back it mopped up the home. The church’s engagement with the residents of the old age home is not coincidental with Valentine’s Day but deliberate. In its eyes, “love” is not just there for enjoying and feeling by “lovers” but must extend to and between all members of society. Likewise, Valentine’s Day. The orphans, and those living with disabilities, widows and widowers and other vulnerable people must be part and parcel of the various streams within the society and there is no reason why Valentine’s Day should be an exception. The church’s youth secretary, Paatjee Meroro, has been tasked by the church’s leadership and elders to spearhead its Valentine’s Day initiative for senior citizens. “Those who have must give to those who don’t,” he finds some Biblical motivation for the initiative. As if this Biblical verse is not enough motivation for the church’s benevolent act, Meroro seeks to further indulge in the word, invoking its imploration of mankind to think of fellow vulnerable people. “Those who can must help those who cannot,” he further accentuates the church’s goodwill act. Based on its Biblical inspiration, the church sees its mission beyond the gospel, “praying and clapping” to the ministering to the physical and material well-being of the spiritual soul. In this regard, the church is actively involved in the HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns. Fully aware of the Government’s extensive hand to help communities, the church feels that the Government’s hand alone is not enough and that the church must also contribute something to the communities they serve and not confine themselves to gospel and “healing” only. Meroro thinks that development and progress is only possible with the contribution of all towards Government’s efforts. In this regard, his church has been active among its communities although not as much as it would wish to. Its activism also includes visiting and praying for the sick in hospitals as well as counselling prison inmates, hoping for them to mend their ways once they have served their time and to become responsible citizens. The church’s initiative, Meroro says, is also informed by the realisation that most of us are destined one day or the other for the same lot as our senior citizens today. So looking after our senior citizens is in a way an investment in our own old age. “The wood that has not landed in the fire cannot laugh at the one in the fire,” he bluntly put it to everyone that old age is bound to catch up on anyone, and that one should not poke jokes at senior citizens but rather help them. Meroro thinks that most of the churches in the country, with the exception of a few, still need to live up to their Biblical calling of going beyond the gospel and praying and singing, to caring for the vulnerable in society. This is a calling that his church intends to take further this year. As well as providing for lunch for the elderly, the church would also be distributing blankets and clothes to them. This is only the beginning of its yearly activities as it also intends to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister Dr Libertina Amathila to see how it can support her activities in caring for vulnerable people. Although other senior citizens from Katutura would not be turned away, the church has only budgeted for the 35 occupants of the Katutura Old Age Home. Copyright 2008 ©New Era Publications .