Healthy Living: The Elderly in Belize
Recently, the more common news reports about the elderly population in Belize have been about crimes where older persons are victims. It is just one of the vulnerabilities that this population faces. After commemorating the International Day of Older Persons on Tuesday, October first, and the launch of the “Front ah the Line” campaign; we take some time to look at the other challenges faced by our golden citizens in tonight’s Healthy Living.
Ix-Chel Poot, Executive Director, National Council on Ageing
“The most important thing when you look at an older person is before you see age you see a person. And you start to think, how would I like to be treated? How would I like someone to speak to me?”
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
“Ix-Chel Poot is the executive director of the National Council on Aging, an organization created in 2003 to advocate for the issues affecting our senior population.
Ix-Chel Poot
Ix-Chel Poot
“We’re hoping that front ah di line will jump into the national platform open a lot more discussion, a lot more awareness not only that the older people exist in our community but how we treat older people existing in our community.”
According to the last census in 2010, about six percent of our population is sixty and over – so roughly twenty thousand Belizeans are in this age group. While it is commonly said that aging is a privilege for many of our Belizean seniors it’s not without its challenges.
Ix-Chel Poot
“One of the major things that a lot of older persons face is isolation. As we age we’re looking at not having a fixed place in society, and that’s why activities that are age inclusive. The curious thing about aging is that we can only appreciate an age after we’ve been there. We can identify with children at five who have no Christmas gifts because we remember being five and what it felt like to receive Christmas gifts, but you can’t identify with seventy-year-old eating alone if you’ve never been seventy and eating alone.”
HelpAge and other groups try to fill the void of social interactions for the elderly, but there is a far more age-inclusive events. But, in terms of priorities, there’s one critical issue that continuously affects golden citizens.
Ix-Chel Poot
“In the same year that six percent was identified in 2010 the country did release its country poverty assessment, and at that time thirty-four percent of that six percent of older person was living in poverty. So we’re looking at a very vulnerable population that is having a difficult time to meet very real basic human needs. Twenty to thirty years ago, parents had children because the children would take care of you, but the way society has shifted. The way things are costing. Adult children’s ability to meet their parents need financial need a hundred percent has declined, and so we find older persons in precarious situations themselves financially. Most older people, even those who are receiving, for example, the noncontributory pension, which was one hundred dollars a month, a lot of older people were living off credit with their neighborhood store. So I would get groceries, and then I would pay something toward my bill when I get my money. I wouldn’t necessarily clear my bill, but I would something towards my bill. Then there were others who had strong faith-based organizations whether there were churches or other missionary groups who would provide for them some kind of stability, of course, family members and then you have older people who still work. That we can identify. We see them selling fruits and vegetables. We see them on market days. There are not out there because they want to be. They are out there because they have to be.”
Meeting expenses is one financial challenge, but protecting assets is another. This is an issue that the N.C.A. hopes will become a more prominent part of the conversation.
Ix-Chel Poot
“Banks will tell you, we see older people come in, and we think that people are taking advantage of them, but our tellers don’t know what to do. There’s nothing in place for us to do. You know regulated by bank confidentiality what can we do? So we’re hoping that this campaign will open up those larger discussions that will push us to real legislative change through regulations.”
Until then, the N.C.A. continues to educate all age groups about the process and preparing for aging.
Ix-Chel Poot
“While I cannot change the financial status of an older person who is seventy or eight right now. We can educate the twenty-five-year-old the thirty-year-old so that when you hit seventy this is not your reality.”
