“International Day of Older Persons” for this year was observed on October 1. The theme was “Stepping into the Future: Tapping the Talents, Contributions and Participation of Older Persons in Society.” But what is the status of older persons in Guyana? Five years ago, Guyana prepared a “National Report on Aging”, which was a “Report and Evaluation of the Brazilia Declaration” on the Rights of Older People. It declared if the strategies and actions proposed were implemented within “the next five years”, meaning this year, Guyana would have met, if not exceeded the goals of the Brazilia Declaration.
We could do worse than consider the Executive summary of the Report to discern how far we have moved towards that goal. “The population of older persons is steadily rising in Guyana. Demographic trends have shown changes from a predominantly young population to an increasingly older population over the past 20 years. This demographic shift has been precipitated by dropping fertility and mortality rates and improved free primary health care, nutrition and sanitation resulting in longevity among the ageing population.
During this same period, Guyana’s health programme has successfully combated infectious diseases, malnutrition and hunger, malaria that were the leading causes of high mortality in young children and have also contributed to longer life spans. Maternal and child health programmes have further played a crucial role in the reduction of death in early ages, even though communicable diseases such as the HIV/AIDS have given rise to relatively high death toll on economically active population. While improvements through the health system redound to better healthcare for all elderly; new health challenges have also emerged with an increase in degenerative diseases, particularly cancers among the ageing population, for which there are no immediate preventative or remedial cures.
Apart from the challenges of physical well-being, the quality of life for many older persons in Guyana is under threat due to alterations in the social network of the family and community. Internal and out-migration to developed countries in Europe, United States and the Caribbean have impacted on caregiving arrangements within families and changed realities of ageing gracefully for most grandparents. It is not uncommon to find that due to death of parents, job-seeking pursuits in other regions within Guyana, and migration to foreign countries, grandparents are filling the protection gaps as guardians and caregivers of orphans and other vulnerable children. Oftentimes older persons are supporting the entire households with meagre incomes from charity, public assistance and Old Age Pensions. Since older citizens cannot rely on their grown children for consistent financial support, they also become vulnerable to poverty, unhealthy lifestyles and disadvantaged social conditions.
Recognition of the human rights of the elderly has not been well exploited or advanced; in fact the issues related their well-being could be enhanced by greater of investments from all of society. For instance, the number of NGOs working on issues related to the elderly is few and the programmes are limited in scope. Even though the religious organisations have played their roles in care of the elderly in their communities, much more needs to be done. The media – both print and electronic – could do more to improve positive images of ageing across all cultural groups in Guyana. This lack of intergenerational celebration of the older persons has also given rise to isolation, loneliness and abandonment of older folks particularly those who have no surviving relatives and children. Consequently, the urgency of addressing is underscored by the demographic ageing projections that show trends of the older population growing faster than any other age group in Guyana.
It would appear the People’s National Congress-led A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change coalition was ahead of the United Nations on empowering older people since even though in their 2015 campaign they emphasised their commitment to “youth”, they tapped the “talents” of older persons in the society to an extraordinary 90 per cent in filling top Government positions. Appointing Justice Patterson as GECOM Chairman was only the latest move.
