Elderly people at village level in Botswana

The paper presents demographic and social data from an in-depth study of the situation of elderly people in a village in Botswana. Botswana is undergoing rapid economic and social change and this change also affects the elderly part of the population. While younger people migrate to urban areas, the elderly are to a large extent left behind in the villages, often with responsibility for caring for small grandchildren. We found that the majority of elderly people in the study village are women. The educational level of the elderly people of both sexes is low but the majority have undergone the traditional initiation schools, Bojale and Bogwera. All households are influenced by modernization in that they need cash for survival. They depend to a large extent on the support of their grandchildren for survival, a support which is not always given.