ABSTRACT
I first met Monica Ferreira in 1984 when she was appointed to manage the National Research Programme on Ageing of the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, later known as the HSRC Co-operative Research Programme on Ageing. The programme was the first co-ordinated research effort on ageing in South Africa. We gathered together a group of individuals from sociology, welfare, medicine, psychiatry and psychology in a co-ordinating committee, which I chaired. However, it was reflective of the lack of research in this area at the time that we experienced considerable difficulty in identifying persons with an interest in or experience of research in the field. The main purpose of the programme was to stimulate and fund research on ageing in South Africa. Monica drove it from the start. Her energy, expertise and organisational skills ensured that a high standard and level of activity were maintained. The programme had a prolific publishing strategy. Among numerous publications to emanate in the 1980s was an edited volume entitled Ageing in South Africa: social research papers (Ferreira, Gillis and Møller (eds), 1989).
