It was with great excitement that members from we-DELIVER met on Monday, 5 June 2017, to discuss the next phase of the project. Since March this year, when the project officially kicked off, until this month, project members have been working hard to prepare for the data collection phase.
Photo from bottom to top, left to right: Hendri Coetzee (NWU), Oupa Makinta (CoC TVSDs), Tebogo Radikgojana (CoC TVSDs), Vera Roos (NWU), Mpho Mabe (MLM), Ngeni Ntombela (NWU), Nopasika (Fido) Maforah (NWU), Karabo Mhele (NWU), Tsitso Monaheng (NWU), Anelda van der Walt (NWU), Morulaganyi Segoe (MLM)
As part of the project, we submited an application to the NWU Ethics Committee that handles projects of this nature. Ethics was approved and our project’s ethics clearance number is NWU-HS-2017-0073. Next we had to put together the research teams at the three NWU sites. We also had to prepare a number of documents, including a questionnaire which will guide our questions to older people and persons working older people to obtain information that will inform the project. We will be making as much of the documentation available as possible given the ethical and legal restrictions.
On Monday we met with colleagues from the Mahikeng Local Municipality (MLM) as well as from the Chamber of Commerce - Townships, Villages, and Small Dorpies (CoC-TVSDs). We also met with a group of older people from Ward 6, also known as Lokaleng, a rural community situated near the NWU Mafikeng Campus with whom we’ll be collaborating in this project. It was a wonderful opportunity for project members who haven’t previously visited Lokaleng, to gain first-hand experiences in the community. We were struck by the distances which older people (and in fact anyone) would have to travel to get access to basic things such as groceries and health care. We are even more excited about the opportunity to collaborate with others to help improve the quality of living of our older people.
