Government should build care homes for our aged —Afuwape

Mrs Olubanke Afuwape is the Chief Executive Officer of Assisted Living Home Care Limited and FTG Collections, a home targeted towards caring for the aged. In this interview by ADEOLA OTEMADE, she says government should build nursing homes for the aged.

 

What motivated you into care-giving for the old?

Initially, I started with dress making and sewing. Caring for the aged was my husband’s idea because he is in the medical line. He thought it would be a good idea if we started the care giving business and asked me to head the business. I studied Microbiology in school; I didn’t work with the degree for a long time. The first thing I did was to train to be a care giver, because whatever you do, if you train, you will be able to know what the business entails. We looked for and located a care giving agency in Lagos, where I trained for a month.  I also went to the Tony Anenih Geatric Centre in University College Hospital and I did other set of training, I did Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (C.P.R).

 

How has embracing your husband’s dream affected your own personal dreams and goals?

Initially, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, I am into fashion but because at a point in time my mum was with me and I sort of empathise with the aged, saw her needs as an elderly woman, and then I decided to give it a shot I fell in line and now I am enjoying the business, not monetarily, caring for the elderly and being compassionate towards them. I have had cause to do business with a lot of elderly people and I think it’s what I would love to do for a long time.

 

What are the qualities you require in your caregivers before you employ them?

We train them, we don’t just employ them and send them out, we train them . They do practical test and they do theoretical aspect. We see them, I have a trainer, who is also the supervisor, I also take part in the training aspect. We have gone out today to check on our care givers, we call it a spot check, if they are doing anything unprofessional we catch them at it. We study them, to start with, we employ majorly nurses, and we think that for someone that had undergone a training as a nurse, where they trained they have seen one or two qualities and I always call where they were trained. A lot of times, because of the shortness of the training, you might not be able to know them fully, but once we know they have a guarantor who we visit to know that they are genuine and with faith we send them out, but character always comes out. It’s often difficult to hide one’s character for long. Once the client complains, we withdraw them and we send other care givers to them.

 

Looking at the situation of the country, you see the aged begging on the streets do you think the government should have a home for them?

It is very unfortunate when you see aged on the street begging for alms. I lived in the US for about 10 years and over there, you see the aged being taken care of by the government even when they are in their homes. The care givers are catered for by the government, and also nursing homes where they keep them is run by the government. Although there are some nursing homes owned by individuals, but there is still an input of the government. It is sad that in Nigeria there is no legislation, even to monitor the so called care providers and care givers. When we were about to start, we went to make enquiries at ministry of social welfare, and ministry of health to find out if  there  was anything we need to do, if there was  any registration we needed to  and we discovered that there were no such thing. It would be nice if the government could have homes for the aged. In Oyo State for example, if they can have in major cities, even if it’s just a home that can take quite a number of these old people that are roaming about the streets take them in and care for them. There was a lot of clamouring or should I say advice for me to start a home because when people called me, one thing I have discovered, they see our address on the internet and they call. A lot of them ask if we have a home where they can actually bring their parents or relatives for us to admit them so that they would be living there. I do tell them that I run a domiciliary. Admitting them like a care home is going to be very difficult in Nigeria, and I think I know a few people that do it. Let’s say we are not really ripe for that yet in Nigeria, because you will see some people that will bring their relatives then start to default, and it can be very difficult to keep an old person because there is hardly any elderly person that will not have one health issue or the other which means that a lot of them are on medication for life. So it means if we are admitting an individual like that, you have to make sure they use their medication promptly, toiletries, feeding, and accommodation. All these things are essential and if their relatives bring them pay for a month or two and default, if you now evict any old person, everybody in Nigeria will get to know, but where do you expect them to get the money to run the home. So this is where I think the government needs to step in and lend a helping hand.

 

Since when have you been into this care giving business?

The company was actually founded, registered in September 2016, but early 2016 were when I started the training, I trained in Lagos, and also at U.C.H. it was in 2016 September that we registered the company.  A lot of people don’t know the services yet, because it took us almost a year before we got the first client, and I had care givers I was paying without realising a dime, but we found the first client since then, God has been faithful, we have some that we have lost, they died, and we still have some client.

 

You mentioned earlier that you are also into fashion, how have you been able to combine your fashion business alongside the care giving business?

I have been into fashion for a long time, for almost 20 years, but right now, I have tailors, I have a head tailor that supervises the tailoring arm of the business for me and I also go there to see what they are doing once in a while. And then the care giving business, I also have a supervisor that oversees the care givers. I have people that oversee the running of the two businesses but I over see both.

 

As a successful entrepreneur, would you say women are taking charge of their leadership role in the society?

I would say yes, women are taking charge of their leadership role in the society, even women that have small businesses; there is no one that would want their business to fail. Women as care givers in the home, no mother would want to see her children suffer financially, so women are really pulling their weight to make sure that whatever business they go into whether small scale or medium scale, they succeed. I have some really big players, women that are captains of industries, whatever role a woman finds herself, we tend to excel to make sure that the society doesn’t look down on us as they use to, we try to do the best that we can also to be supportive to our husband. A lot of women have pride; they don’t want everything to fall on their husband. It’s only women who don’t have a choice that would say I want to be a full time house wife and I want to depend on the alternative the husband provides. But it is not the best to be a full time house wife. Because you are a woman doesn’t mean you don’t stand to be counted. Women are really pulling their weight to make sure that they are not behind.

 

What are the challenges you faced in your career path?

In the care giving aspect of the business, we founded the company in September 2016, and it was in July 2017 before we got our first client, it’s just now that people are starting to know that business. I noticed that a lot of people that request for our services are people that have travelled out of the country and know that such things are done abroad. Another challenge that we have in the business is getting good care givers who have passion for the job. At some time we have some of them that will not give you a notice when they want leave, they will just leave impromptu, then we would be faced with whom to send to fill in the gap. In business integrity is key, once you lose your integrity, your chances of being successful at the business is slim. So the challenges we have been facing is getting a good care giver, and the awareness people need towards taking good care of their aged.

 

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