Media sensitised to problems of elderly
With a few notable exceptions, the world of the Belizean media is one dominated by the young. And like most people of my generation, we may not always appreciate the problems faced by our elders. To correct the situation, members of the media were this morning invited to spend some quality time with senior citizens. For News 5’s Jacqueline Woods, it was a real eye opener.
Workshop Skit
“I have my family but they all abandon me.”
“Why they abandon you man?”
“I don’t know, when you get old the noh like to visit old people you know.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
It’s sad to feel alone and neglected but that is just one of many issues affecting the senior citizens of Belize. It is estimated that there are sixteen thousand people, sixty years and older, living in the country. Although it is projected that population will double by the year 2025, older persons continue to struggle in society because of the lack of programmes, policies and services.
Lindy Jeffrey, Project Officer, Helpage Belize
“Helpage carried out a survey of older people in the country a year ago now, and two of the main issues that came out from that survey, was older people are definitely suffering from loneliness and poverty. Even when older people live with their family, they are still very lonely, they feel neglected, pushed to one side.”
Senior citizens receive from the Human Development Department a weekly social assistance of only five dollars. Many retired at the mandatory age of fifty-five and basically stay home, do volunteer work or perform menial jobs to make money.
Gwendolyn Zetina, 68 years old
“Right now we are looking forward, because we heard the Prime Minister say that he is going to give housewives over sixty-five years a pension. And so we are really looking forward that that will come true.”
Olga Blades, 66 years old
“I have a blind son, and he is forty-nine years of age. I have him from when I was sixteen. So I am the mother and the father to him, so I have to say that I feed him, clothe him, and do everything. I went and I asked for assistance for him, because it’s hard for me because I’m sixty-six years now. So I get five dollars a week for him, and sometimes I left it for the month, because if I go every week to collect five dollars, every two weeks or every week whatever… I can’t, because it’s hard for me. I gotta pay a taxi to get there and it’s five dollars to get there, what am I going to bring home.”
Albert Castillo, 64 Years old
“Right now I am eligible for a pension from the government, so that’s what retired teachers usually get. But up to now I haven’t got it.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Are you expecting to get this pension?”
Albert Castillo
“Right, and that’s the way I expect to live for the balance of my life.”
Jacqueline Woods
“So outside of that, what other financial assistance you been getting?”
Albert Castillo
Well it’s so happens that I have children who are well to do. I try to help them, they went to school and they graduated, so they are doing their work. So I am getting a little bit of help from them.”
Today, Albert Castillo, a retired teacher from Hopkins Village, sat down with other colleagues from across the country to express their concerns and discuss what needs to be done to improve their way of life. The senior participants did not shy away from the issues and dramatized through skits the daily challenges that confront them.
Workshop Skit
“Mister, is this the bus that is going to Kings Park?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, because I going to Helpage right now to do some community work with the elderly people there.”
“We do not accept this.”
The senior citizens called upon Novelo’s Bus Service to honour their free bus pass that was issued to them through their organization, Helpage Belize.
The problem of abuse does not go away with age; in fact it was demonstrated that the issue still torments many senior households.
The two day meeting dubbed Older Persons Rights and the Media Advocacy Workshop, made journalists aware of what’s it like to be senior citizens with disabilities. The exercise was held to sensitise the media and motivate us to report more on the issues.
(Rene Villanueva, Owner of Love FM, blindfolded and being led around the room)
(Jules Vasquez in a wheelchair)
(Jacqueline blindfolded and being pushed in a wheelchair)
Jules Vasquez, Managing Director, Channel 7
“A wheel chair is just half way solving a bigger problem, which I guess a lot of people have to live with everyday. And it’s unimaginable having both the pain of arthritis and then added to that, the headache of moving in a wheelchair.”
Jacqueline Woods
“I felt really scared, especially when we were going down the ramp. I felt trapped; I hate feeling that I had to be so dependent on someone else. And the things is, you have to trust that person, because basically you’re putting your life into his or her own hands.”
Last year, the Ministry of Human Development published a National Policy for Older Persons. While the booklet identified the problems and set goals, to date it has not yet been implemented.
Lindy Jeffery
“At the moment it is just a paper document and we would like to see that policy implemented this year, because in the police it encapsulates everything that we want to see for older people. In terms of looking at the issues of poverty and increase assistance to older people so they get some income security, looking at all kinds of issues to do with their housing, better housing, better health care.”
Jeffrey says they will work towards meeting the financial, medical, transportation, housing and legal needs of senior citizens. An older and wiser Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
On March twenty-sixth Helpage will host an Older Persons Forum at which people from all over the country are invited to voice their opinions on the subject of ageing in Belize. That meeting will be held at the Radisson.
