A role for black seniors in educare: a community assessment / created by Valerie Moller

This report discusses findings from a review of a plan of the South African KwaMashu Christian Care Society (KMCCS) for introducing an educare program in which active older women give in-service training to grandmothers and other childminders who look after preschool children at home. Before launching the proposed program, a KMCCS committee conducted a study in 1987 with the help of the University of Natal to determine community reactions to this educare concept. A total of 302 residents were surveyed, of whom approximately 75 percent were women. Two-thirds had children of their own and one-third were grandmothers. The major finding was that the KMCCS educare program would be wholeheartedly accepted, as would a training program for women of all ages. It was also found that there was general support for the concept of institutional care for the aged and a feeling that traditional respect for the elderly is not necessarily affected by the perceived loss of the elder's role in modern industrial society. The survey resulted in a recommendation that the ZamaZulu Nkosi Centre, an old-age home, should proceed with its proposed educare program. A total of 25 tables are included, and 4 appendices describe characteristics of the sample, a map of the area, a circular sent to survey participants reporting on the results of the survey, and a leaflet advertising the Khulakahle Childminding Association and Training Program. Contains 7 references