Joel Murerwa who represented Meru County Women Representative Elizabeth Kailemia launching Meru County retired professionals ladies CBO. Photo/Dennis Dibondo
By Dennis Dibondo
Retired professional ladies in Meru County have officially launched a Community Based Organisation (CBO).
The aim is to use the lobby group to address some of the challenges they are facing after exiting the public service.
Speaking during the launch at Gitoro Pastoral Centre in North Imenti, the CBO Chairlady Jeniffer Makena said the urge to form the organisation was driven by the need to come together with an aim of helping each other, the community and other vulnerable members of the society.
“We came up with this idea after realising some of us were getting lost out there with no one to cling on to in terms of resources or even mere advice. Our target is to empower each other economically as well as socially,” Makena said.
She said many retirees in the county and the country at large were silently suffering and it is the high time to speak about it for interventions to be done.
“Some of us retired very long ago when the cost of living was not as high and the few coins we were getting then, is the same today and they are expected to cope with life with the same respect we commanded from the society while we were working,” she added.
Nelly Iruri, the organisation’s vision carrier said loneliness is also a factor that made them initiate the idea of bringing all retired ladies together.
She argued that when they were in service, they used to live in social groups with their colleagues, forming merry-go-rounds, and being surrounded by many colleagues which gave them comfort then.
But after getting from those stations and going back home, she added, you appear like a stranger and by the time you become assimilated into the new life, you will only be living with your family who sometimes will not be understanding what you will be doing at home.
“We thought that by coming together we will share visions depending on the challenges we are facing hence empowering ourselves even through a medical cover which is one of the greatest challenges to retirees,” said Ms Iruri.
She added that they were also seeking to empower retirees who had not planned for their retirement benefits and therefore ended up misusing them.
She called on the government to ensure that retirees are treated with dignity just like those in service, adding that they are the backbone of the developments in civil service.
Joel Murerwa who represented the office of the Woman representative Ms Elizabeth Kailemia called on the organisation to rethink the issue of bringing retired men on board so they could move together.
He encouraged them to identify a project that they can initiate adding that their office will finance them so they can generate more income for the organisation.
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