By CHUSA SICHONE –
CHESHIRE Homes Society of Zambia in Chawama has kept a 93-year-old woman for the past 16 years after she was picked from the road side and relatives have never been traced.
Cheshire Homes chairperson Joseph Ngoma, said the woman had become frail because of old age and was nearly becoming deaf.
Mr Ngoma said the old woman only identified as Fridah was the oldest at the Cheshire homes and that no relative has been traced for the past 16 years.
“She is Fridah. We don’t have her exact surname, we just call her ba Fridah. She speaks Bemba and her hearing is now almost finished. She is one of those who were abandoned by the roadside. She is the oldest here and has been with us for the past 16 years,” Mr Ngoma said.
He said the old woman was among the nine elderly persons whose relatives had not been located.
Mr Ngoma said Cheshire Homes was currently looking after 18 elderly persons and 16 children.
He, however, said that some elderly persons or children under the institution’s care had relatives but that their families had no capacity to look after them.
Mr Ngoma said the home had the capacity to accommodate 20 people but that it had exceeded by 14 and recorded deaths every year.
He appealed to members of the public who could have been missing relatives to consider checking for them at Cheshire Homes.
Cheshire Homes relies on well-wishers’ generosity and its challenges include difficulties to feed the dependents, provide medication for them and pay school fees for the children as five of them were currently pursuing studies at tertiary level.