The National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC), says it will partner with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to develop an advocacy program to address ageism, elder abuse and violence against elderly persons in the country.
The Director-General of NSCC, Dr. Emem Omokaro, said this on Wednesday when she paid a courtesy visit to the Director-General of NOA, Dr. Garba Abari, in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the center was established under the NSCC Act, 2017 to primarily identify the needs of senior citizens and cater for them in varied domains.
These include health, income security, training and education for capacity enhancement, counseling, sports, recreation and development of data system on senior citizens. The director-general said, “NSCC is desirous of a structured partnership on the development of concrete programs for awareness creation on and social mobilization including addressing ageism, elder abuse and violence against elder persons, especially order women.
“We seek to collaborate with the National Orientation Agency in the designing of information, education and communication materials for specific advocacy and enlightenment programs and activities. ”She added that the center also sought the NOA collaboration on the establishment of “NSCC Anti-Elder Abuse Community Rapid Respond Squad ”According to her, this is a multi-stakeholder community based mechanism for identifying elder abuse in all it’s forms within communities.
“It is also aimed at identifying and engaging first responders, conceptualizing a seamless preventive, reporting framework and procedural for processing of appropriate redress and remedies, including access to legal services for older persons,” she said.
Responding, Abari expressed NOA commitment to the development of the NSCC advocacy and enlightenment programs to address violence against elder persons in the country.
The director-general, who said that the agency would designate a focal person to the center. He added that the agency would also create awareness using radio jingles across the 774 local government areas.
(NAN)
