The Elderly Home Visit

The Aga Khan Academy is committed to making students more aware of those who are less fortunate than them through the service portion of the Creativity, Action and Service (C.A.S) programme in the curriculum. The WEMA programme is one such project that the school has supported in the past. Another club that encompasses this caring attitude towards members of the community is “The Hug Them Club.”

On Tuesday 25th November, the Hug Them Club went to visit an elderly home, commonly known as “nyumba ya wazee” or "little angels" in Tudor. This was a humbling experience for the club members. The students gave the elderly some Christmas gifts that included clothes and food. The grade 7 students who also accompanied the group had a special gift for the seniors. It was a game set called “Mankala" which is an African stone game of strategy requiring skill and foresight in which two players compete against each other trying to accumulate as many stones as possible before one of the players clears his side of all stones. The game was played in Egypt some 3000 years ago. The students taught the pensioners how to play the game and were delighted that their eager pupils were excited to learn.

The visit lasted the entire afternoon where laughter and good conversation was exchanged. In the end, one of the residents gave a heartfelt thank you speech that touched the students. Although the visit lasted a short while, the students felt that they had made a huge difference in the residents' lives simply by caring and sharing.