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"content": "so that it does look more of a family issue. This is because we are dealing with social issues. Having said that, we have moved from a society where the community used to take care of everybody in; if you were poor, orphaned or sick, the community would take care of you, thereby riding society of these extreme cases. As we develop, the family system will change. We now have this problem of people not being able to support themselves. I am thinking of various groups. Of course, we have the aged who are over 65 years of age and who have no persons to support them. We have the sick and also those I would call “social outcasts”. These are the people who, because of the pressure of the society, have left their communities and engaged in activities like prostitution. They have been rehabilitated, but somehow they are nowhere. I am thinking of orphans and people who, as a result of disasters, find themselves with nothing and so they are exposed to problems. If we have a body that co-ordinates all these activities, then I think we will be moving in the right direction. When we give this assistance haphazardly, we may assist some people and leave others unassisted. I fully support this Bill. It would be very important for this Authority to, first of all, identify what the problems are that cause some of these people not to be able to support themselves. We have had cases where people run from their families, the youth try to commit suicide and so on. This is because we have problems. We need this Authority to, first of all, identify these problems, so that, as an Authority, if they have a way of preventing these occurrences, then, of course, they will reduce the number of the people who need social assistance. It will also be important to look at issues that are short-term. For instance a disease may occur, or we could have the case of IDPs where you just need to have a quick intervention and after sometime, things are back to normal and then life continues. We also need to look at the kind of assistance to be provided. You find an old man and woman, say, of 70 years, who does not have people to support them. We have to support such people up to the end of their lives. There is a case where you find a family of young children or what we call “families headed by children”. Here, you find that a first born is still in primary or secondary school. It is important that we provide assistance to these families, so that the first born goes through education, gets salaried employment or self-employment and becomes able to support his or her siblings. It is important that this Authority looks at those areas of social need and provide quick support and long- term support. If the issues of educating children who are unable to cater for themselves is addressed, that will be a good thing. Assistance in terms of housing is equally important. We have cases where people are not able to get accommodation for themselves. We need the Government to address those issues, so that we do not have that problem and others such as lack of food, education and so on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would prefer that the Government adopts this Bill and then we have money coming from the Consolidated Fund, donors and well- wishers in support of this Authority. As you can see, the people who require this kind of assistance are many. Therefore, we need everybody’s participation and support, so that we can help those members of our society who are not capable of supporting themselves. With those few remarks, I support."
}