A holistic approach to the needs of Senior Citizens

Jul 30, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
There was an article in the June 29 issue of Kaieteur News written by Mr. Leonard Gildarie. It was entitled: “Protection for our Senior Citizens”.
This was a good attempt to address the general needs of senior citizens in Guyana and Brazil. He also inserted a photograph of a building in Brasilia to house senior citizens.
Mr. Gildarie cleverly articulated the great need for senior citizens in Guyana to be given the requisite help to cushion their basic expenses since some elderly persons receive small pensions.
I have written a number of letters over the years about the plight of some elderly persons and hence would like to reinforce what Mr. Gildarie has written. Our senior citizens number in the thousands while in Brazil and many other countries there are millions of retirees including Guyanese who migrated. It is a paradox that these major societies do their best to provide for the old folk while we are somewhat unable to do so?
Let Government sit down with the Private Sector, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders like religious institutions and try to discuss and come up with a package that would enable the most vulnerable pensioner to eke out a comfortable living. We are told that comparisons are not often accurate but we should compare the standard of Guyanese elderly persons with that of senior citizens in the other Caricom territories.
Finally, we can never be on par with the industrialised or First World countries. We cannot afford to provide condominiums to house our senior citizens.
We ought to be able to erect simple apartments for those elderly persons who are reasonably healthy and active and who would like to use part of their pensions to pay a rent so that they may live a quiet life.
Malcolm Maynard

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