Virtual reality brings some of Nigeria’s favourite stars into old folks home

Record ID: 1671523

  • Title: Virtual reality brings some of Nigeria’s favourite stars into old folks home
  • Date: 5th May 2022
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ONATOLA ONAJOBI WATCHING, A MUSIC VIDEO ON A VIRTUAL REALITY UNIT VARIOUS OF ELDERLY MAN DANCING / WEARING VR UNIT VARIOUS OF ELDERLY WOMAN DANCING TO MUSIC ON HER VR DEVICE VARIOUS OF CAREGIVERS CLAPPING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELDERLY CARE HOME CLIENT, ONATOLA ONAJOBI, SAYING: “It looks as if I was watching Ray Charles on stage, it gave me a feeling I can never forget”. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELDER PEOPLE’S HOME RESIDENT, MORADEYO AJIBADE, SAYING: “I have never even seen this VR before but this is my first time using it. That's why I stood up and began to dance when the music entered my brain, it ginger my swagger.” VARIOUS OF KUNLE ADEWALE SETTING UP VIRTUAL REALITY CONTENT
  • Embargoed: 19th May 2022 11:31
  • Keywords: VR Virtual reality senior citizens therapeutic art
  • Location: LAGOS, NIGERIA
  • City: LAGOS, NIGERIA
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Africa,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001559403052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Onatola Onajobi is having a great time at the Elderly Care Home in Lagos, Nigeria. Onajobi is wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset, allowing the 77-year-old to listen to and watch some of his favourite musicians and their music videos.
    Onajobi used to be a Disc Jockey in his heyday, and says the VR unit has helped him connect with music more intimately than ever before.
    “It looks as if I was watching Ray Charles on stage, it gave me a feeling I can never forget,’’ said Onajobi.
    Onajobi is not enjoying the joyful experience alone. Fellow Elderly Care Home client Moradeyo Ajibade, is also filled with joy and nostalgia after trying on the VR unit.
    “I have never even seen this VR before but this is my first time using it. I stood up and began to dance when the music entered my brain, it gingered (energized) my swagger,” said Ajibade who danced to a selection of a guitar-based genre of West African music known as “highlife”.
    Kunle Adewale is an artist who focuses on what he refers to as therapeutic art projects.
    The 40-year-old founded Tender Arts Nigeria in 2013, a non-profit social enterprise that has carried out initiatives in India, Nigeria, South Africa, and other African countries.
    After the death of his parents, Adewale decided to make helping seniors live the rest of their lives in happiness a priority.
    “The virtual reality stuff is more of a gaming thing for the youth but there’s so much potential it can offer in the place of health and improving their wellbeing and their health status as well, so that is why I started this. And beyond that as well I feel like virtual reality can help seniors to really...in place of mental health and also in the place of brain health as well. Some of these elderly ones actually have dementia which is known as memory loss as well but what is important is that virtual reality can help them to connect maybe with a popular musician they grew up knowing or listening to, so relieving that moment, relieving experience and finding expression and being able to dance and move their bodies in a way that it just makes them happy in that moment and it fine, it might be short but it’s important for them,’’ Adewale said.
    World Bank data indicates that senior citizens like Onajobi only account for 2.7% of Nigeria's 200 million people.
    In June 2021, the Nigerian government inaugurated a governing board for the National Senior Citizens Centre, following President Buhari's signing of the National Senior Citizens Act, which directs that the elderly should be catered for through community-based systems.
    But Nigeria's population continues to climb relatively quickly and analysts have also highlighted a widely ingrained resistance to placing older family members in care facilities.
    Modupe Augusto runs the Elderly Care Home, and insists that peoples’ attitude needs to change.
    “You find a lot of old people getting missing, getting lost while trying to just take a walk and then they can’t find their way back home, so with all those happening around, we need to educate people and let them know that these old people are not witches, because they have white hair does not mean they are witch, they have lived life, they were once young, vibrant you know, active just like we are,” she said.
    And while VR can't replace visits by family and short trips outside the home, Adewale's project is a safe way to put smiles on faces and get people dancing.
    “Sometimes the seniors get to experience this virtual reality and it seems that they can’t get out of it, it’s like they finding themselves in a world, in their own world, they stay longer there, they want to stay there forever,’’ Adewale said.
    Adewale and many others who operate in the VR space, say use of the technology got a boost during the pandemic and the restrictions that have come with it.
    Adewale’s Art in Medicine project also supports people living with sickle cell anaemia.
    (Production: Seun Sanni, Angela Ukomadu, Abraham Achirga)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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