By Itunu Ajayi

Twenty-four years after Dr. Olukemi Adamolekun’s life was cut short, the organisation she founded is not onlycaring for elderly Nigerians, it is now investing in young people who will shape the future of healthcare and social work.

When Adamolekun conceived the idea of Kaleyewa House more than two decades ago, caring for the elderly was hardly at the centre of public discourse in Nigeria. But as someone who has lived in the United States and had observed the systems of carefor older people in a dignifying way, she began to ask a simple butimportant question: what would happen to elderly Nigerians astraditional family structures change and more children movedaway from their hometowns?

In her effort to develop a workable model for elderly care in Nigeria, Adamolekun engaged with Assist Guide Information Services (AGIS), an American eldercare organisation tosee what level of intervention she could accessed.

Drawing from he rexperience of the systems of care in the United States, she worked to adapt the concept to the Nigerian environment. Her intention was to partner with AGES (African Gerontologicalc Society) and IFAN (International Federation on Ageing-Nigeria).

This gave birth to Kaleyewa House, which means growing old with dignity, beauty, grace, and respect. Kaleyewa was conceived as a pioneering intervention for elderlypeople, particularly in Iju and Itaogbolu of Ondo State. Its original vision was broader than simply distributing food, medical careand accommodation for vulnerable elderly people, but an elder-care ecosystem. As a result, she began asking what could be do.

And her goal was not to simply copy the American system, but adapt the principles of care to Nigerian realities. Reason, she undertook a needs assessment in Iju and Itaogbolu. The findings were remarkably practical: elderly people needed food, medical care and assistance with rent.

But Adamolekun was not able to see that vision fully realised. She was murdered in Ibadan on May 4, 2002, while travelling inconnection with the work of Kaleyewa House, barely a year after the organisation was registered as a non-profit.

But her death did not terminate the project. Her husband, Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, her children and others who believed in her vision decided that her vision would not die with her. They kept her legacy alive.

Kaleyewa’s model was strikingly simple but practical.It identified the needs of elderly people and responded to them directly. Today, hundreds of elderly beneficiaries received food andmedical assistance, while particularly vulnerable people—includingthose who are bedridden or unable to attend public programmes arereached in their homes. Some beneficiaries also receive assistance with rent.

In an environment where elderly care has historically received limited sustained attention, Kaleyewa House’s persistence is significant. Its work also appears to have anticipated a challenge that Nigeria would increasingly face: the weakening of traditional systems in which elderly parents could automatically expect to live with or be supported by their children.

However, what began as one woman’s idea has survived more than two decades and continues to provide practical support to elderly people in the two communities.

At the recent celebration of Adamolekun’s 80th posthumous birthday, a retired principal, who was a pioneer volunteer at the Home, Chief Adedipe Adegboye, providing insight to the journey of the Home, said a survey of elders in the two communities were done at the onset of the programme. He said apart from food items, elders also got free clothes, shoes, bags and torch lights. He reiterated the commitment of the organisation in giving health counseling to beneficiaries whenever food distributions were done.

His words. “The initial plan of the founder was to be giving money to beneficiaries but due to my experience in the community on what theneeds of the people are, I advised her to concentrate on food, healthcare and accommodation. We distribute food items that include rice, beans, saltand Maggi, which the elders requested changed to locust beans. This distribution is done six times in a year.” Adegboye called on well spirited Nigerians to partner with the organisationto expand its scope.

A childhood friend of Adamolekun, Mrs. Omotewa Aderibigbe said her friend tried to make her fall in love with Mathematics, a subject she never understood how anyone could be comfortable with.

Her words: “Kemi was my childhood friend. We attended the same Pry School, and the same Secondary School (Fiwasaye Girls’ Grammar School, Akure). Growing up together in the village, was fun, but under very strict discipline. Being together was our cherished bond. We used to go to the stream in the bushto wash our clothes in preparation for school resumption.

We would then enter the stream, and bathed with our dresses on. It was all giggles. I used to pity her when she was sent home for school fees along with some of us, because, I saw her traumatized in the midst of affluence”.

Aderibigbe, a retired Deputy Director from the Ministry of Interior, who turned 80 in April, said Adamolekunnever allowed any setback todampen her resolve to excel in life.

“She was good in Mathematics and I was good in English. I hatedMathematics with a passion. She would try to help me with Mathematicsand I usually refused. She would tell me Mathematics was as simple asEnglish. She wanted the best for everybody, and thiswas what inspired her passion for a better life for the elderly, whichbirthed Kaleyewa. Memories of
Adamolekun are everlasting. That is why she liveson.”

Also speaking at the event, Chief Bunmi Alade, a retired PermanentSecretary in Ondo State and Balogun Ijo of St. Matthew’s AnglicanChurch, Iju, said what particularly impressed him about the founder wasthe absence of political motivation behind her mission.

He described her as a woman who despite not having billionaire developed the desire to giveback to her community.“I appreciate the founder for her vision and desire to put smile on thefaces of the less privileged, most especially the aged,” he said.

He noted that Adamolekundecision to dedicate herself to improving the livesof people around her demonstrated a heart of compassion andselflessness.

Alade also commended Adamolekun’s husband and children for sustaining theproject after her death, saying their commitment demonstrated that shehad successfully created within her family a passion for giving back tohumanity.Alade’s observation touches on perhaps the most remarkable part of theKaleyewa story.

American actor and filmmaker, Tyler Perry once captured the essence ofsuch service in a simple statement: “It’s all about trying to helpsomebody cross.”

That philosophy resonates with the work Adamolekun began. She wastrying to help elderly people across the difficult terrain of hunger, loneliness,inadequate medical care and neglect. She did not wait until she hadunlimited resources before acting. She saw a need and decided to dosomething about it.

Meanwhile, the family are extending the project beyond just caring for the elderly. They have instituted a scholarship programme to deepen the dimension of her legacy. This takes effect this Septemberfor students who wish to pursue any of the five disciplines inwhich she obtained university degrees, at any public first-generation universities in Nigeria.

The scholarship is a fitting extension of her life’s philosophy. Thesignificance of the initiative goes beyond education. It representsa deliberate attempt to pass the values that shaped Adamolekun’s lifeto another generation.

Adamolekun was a woman who believed in education,professional development and service to humanity. Her academicjourney crossed several disciplines, including nursing, psychology,guidance and counselling, and social work.And students in these fields can carry on some of those values forward.The elderly beneficiaries of Kaleyewa House represent one end ofthe legacy.The scholarship recipients represent the other.One receives care.The other is being equipped to provide care.That is a fitting evolution for Kaleyewa whose founder believedthat the welfare of older people required not just charity butknowledge, training, advocacy and policy.

The decision to create a scholarship around those disciplinestherefore, means that her legacy will no longer be confined to thecare of today’s elderly.It can also help produce tomorrow’s nurses, psychologists,counsellors, social workers and other professionals whose workwill affect vulnerable people for generations to come.

In other words, Kaleyewa House is moving from preserving alegacy to reproducing it.That may ultimately prove to be one of the most enduring waysof remembering its founder.

Adamolekun’s original dream no doubt was ambitious. But her family andfriends have carried it forward within the resources available tothem, and hundreds of elderly people have benefited as a result.

Now, with the introduction of the memorial scholarship, thelegacy is acquiring another layer.The elderly who benefit from Kaleyewa House represent thegeneration that came before.The scholarship recipients will represent the generation thatcomes after.

Between the two lies the enduring idea that defined Dr. OlukemiAdamolekun’s life: that caring for people is not a burden to beavoided but a responsibility to be embraced.

More than two decades after her death, Kaleyewa House istherefore, doing more than remembering its founder.It is continuing her work.And perhaps that is the most meaningful way to celebrate an80th birthday she never lived to see.

• Ajayi is ayounger sister of Adamolekun, she writes from the US.