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An outfit, MK Executive Care, dedicated to
catering for senior citizens has taken off in Lagos.
Its Executive Director, Issac Ukeleghe, said the
outfit is committed to providing adequate care for
aged citizens at affordable rate.
According to him: “Senior citizens after paying
their dues to the society and their families should
not be left to suffer and die but should be catered
for in a good environment.”
He spoke at the unveiling of the outfit, which also
adopted a charity organisation, Living Fountain
Orphanage Lekki, Lagos as part of his Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR).
Ukeleghe told reporters: “It is a blessing and not
a curse to grow old. Nigerians should not
abandon their aged parents and relatives just
because of old age which is inevitable most
time.”
He pointed out the outfit has existed in the United
Kingdom with great success, explaining the
expansion was to accommodate elderly persons
in Nigeria.
On what spurred the extension to Nigeria, he
said: “Last year I needed someone to look after
my dad because he couldn’t look after himself
anymore.
“He needed mobility and assistance in mobility
and none of his children were around to support
him. So we depended on an external person to
look after him.”
Continuing, he said, “Luckily for us someone
within the village took interest and the person
without any training or formal arrangement
decided to start coming to my daddy’s house to
look after him.
“The service he was rendering for my dad is what
I do for others. So we came to a point we had to
set up a formal arrangement.
“So we started paying him monthly, later my dad
died in April at about 110.”
He explained MK Executive Care does not run old
people’s home but provides trained caregivers for
clients who subscribe for the service.
“It is a situation where interested persons would
consult us for the services and we study their
cases and provide the most suitable caregiver to
work with them.
“It could be someone who would work for four
hours, eight hours, twelve hours, few days in the
week or a live-in caregiver depending on the
client’s choice.
“Clients could also make their choices about the
type of caregiver they want.
“Unfortunately Nigeria does not have such system
like we have in the UK. We are hoping though that
with things changing and with good intention, we
would get to that point.”
The care-givers, he assured, have been well-
screened to avoid theft, security threats and
criminal activities.
“For instance when we employ someone, one of
the commonest things we do is to get the phone
number of the person and we check if it is
registered in the person’s name, we also get
guarantors and we phone the guarantors to make
them accept the responsibility.
“The few ones we have got we have gone to the
length of going to their houses to be sure and in
addition we also get the prove of address to
again check the address to see that is actually
where the person is, “ he said.
Continuing on background checks, Ukeleghe said:
“We are doing some police checks but they are
not as detailed and as comprehensive as what
we have in the UK.
“However we are trying to refine our system on
the context of where we operate because we
know we need to refine it and training is also
very important. So we need to train our workers.
“Not just about employing the person but training
them to buy into the vision of the organisation.
“And hopefully with the check we have in place,
for instance when we send someone to a place
we would regularly be checking on that person.
“We do a spot check, we regularly check without
announcing we were coming and we regularly
phone our clients to see whether they are happy,”
he explained.
On the needs for cultural reorientation for old
people’s care, the caregiver said: “In my case we
almost thought that our people do not need the
service, we always say that the family support is
always there.
“What we forget is that when we bring civilisation
in, we want to push our children to go out and
get greener pasture, they can no longer be with
us again and there is a vacuum which someone
needs to fill.
“We need to fine-tune our minds to know that,
that old time is gone when you think the family is
there.
“Even as organised as the system is in the UK is,
we have workers who steal from and abuse their
clients.
“How much more in a place where there is no
system? We still try to make sure we use the
available systems to get things working.
“We have CCTV in the office and we want to have
a system where we can install CCTV in the homes
of our clients where they can see their old parents
from anywhere in the world,” he said.
source: thenationonlineng.net/outfit-catering-senior-citizens-takes-off-lagos/

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