AGED

Last week, I had the opportunity to accompany, a staff memeber from WT on his monthly visit to the give financial assistant to the elderly. In Ghana they have not social secruity system.

The program is called AGED Program. It gives 10 Cedis (about $9. 93) to old folks who have no family to take care of them. They only have 30 slots and as people die they fill them in.

I visited about 6 houses and witness some pretty extreme poverty. They were all living in pretty bad situations, but one just sticks out. It was a man who was blind. The house he was staying in was just concrete and blackened from indoor fires. There was little furniture. He was sitting on a bench. His eyes were hazy.

Eric the staff member, a man with such grace and intergity, told him we had arrived and he took the man's thumb and pressed it in the ink pad. Eric juggled the things in his hands to get the man's thumb print by his name. then he pressed the 10 cedis in his hands. We said our good byes and left.

I know the 10 cedis aren't going to catalpult change into the world, or empower the people to rise up ,but I still think there's a place providing a bit of assistant to people in dire need. WT doesn't require them to subscribe to a religion or view. Nothing is asked of them. They don't have to subscribe to a religion or make job goals. They are our responsibilty. They are just taking care of the poorest of the poor.