Protecting Our Elderly Against Violence

The recent murders of two elderly men have raised serious concerns about violence against senior citizens.  While the National Council of Ageing has issued a release decrying the senseless acts of violence that have befallen Geoffrey Crawford and Leo Skeen, today the Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia speaks of the responsibility of the citizenry to protect its elders.

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Human Development

“Our policy is one of encouraging each and every one of our families to protect and to make sure that our elder persons, our senior citizens are looked after in every way.  The theme on the International Day for Older Persons was “Digital Equity for Everybody.”  In other words, let’s teach our granny to use the Whatsapp and the social media and those kinds of things so that we can stay connected in these COVID times.  But I can’t stress enough as was done by Ms. Ixchell from our Secretariat for the National Council of Ageing the responsibility of families to care for our elders because we could never have enough elderly homes, for example, if we were to abandon our senior citizens who have brought us to where we are.  So my appeal is for all Belizeans to take that to heart and to make sure that the case that had come to our attention doesn’t happen again.”