Maria Stacey
Supporter/Mentor Ithemba Community Care Center
“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ”
― Paulo Freire
ABOUT Maria
Maria is a consultant specialising in public health, human rights and social justice. She works with people who are most affected by HIV: sex workers, transgender people, gay men and drug addicts.
Maria's work gives her the opportunity to work at different levels - from the global to the national to the local - making links between these different levels provides a challenge.
Maria is trained as a clinical psychologist and has always been called to work towards justice, inclusion and equity, especially addressing the deep inequalities in our society, and she is inspired by the spirit of "tikkun olam". In the course of her career, she has worked with survivors of violence and torture, refugees, people dealing with addictions, and people living with HIV, among others.
She is involved in supporting Ithemba Community Old Age Home, the only old age home in Khayelitsha.
Maria makes a small contribution through networking to assist Ithemba to survive and hopefully, in the future, grow.
AREAS WE WORK IN:
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Community Development
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Elderly
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Governance
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Health
Aging is inevitable, even though it is something we don’t like to think about when we are younger. After a lifetime of hard work and raising families, aging brings experience and wisdom, but it can also bring ill health, loneliness and misery. The situation for South Africa’s elderly is even more precarious when they have to survive on a government pension of R1890. Most elderly South Africans still stay with their extended families, but the rate of elderly people staying alone is increasing. With many families facing serious financial stress, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, elderly family members are often neglected and abused. Too many old people have absolutely no one to look after them if they become physically or mentally frail, when they need help with daily tasks like cooking, personal hygiene, getting to the clinic and taking their medication Old age homes are few and far between.
In Khayelitsha, with a population of around 2 million, there is only one old age home – Ithemba Community Old Age Home. Currently, Ithemba's main source of income is the government pensions of the residents. Imagine caring for 30 old people with a budget of R1890 per person! The dedicated team of staff and volunteers at Ithemba make it possible, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t very challenging
Ithemba was founded by Nomsa Gxotiwe, who started taking vulnerable, frail, and ill old people whose families could not support them into her home.
