PICTURED ABOVE : Vauxhall Senior Citizens’ Village in Christ Church.
Along with the building and/or renovation of facilities for the elderly in Barbados should come programmes and other initiatives to support their development.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey, alluded to this, last Friday, as he officially reopened the Vauxhall Senior Citizens’ Village in Christ Church, a facility renovated at a cost of BDS $2.5 million.
Acknowledging that the society was an ageing one, Mr. Humphrey said persons’ ambitions and aspirations did not remain the same, and as such, a new Barbadian society must come with changes which recognise the resources within older persons that “we now have to be able to fully utilise”.
The Minister noted that, for instance, electronic banking for the elderly made sense, though some persons had disagreed when it was proposed. He said: “It is really about making sure that we put the elderly persons in this country in a position to be able to live…. We have forgotten that COVID prevented our older persons from being able to go to the post office, the neighbourhood shop, and to socialise.
“We have also forgotten that a lot of these persons that cash cheques in communities do so at a serious cost to the older persons, and that what we are seeking to do is not to deny persons the opportunity to interact in post offices and so on; that’s good, but it should not, however, be the only place where they are allowed to interact….”
Mr. Humphrey continued: “You do not make policies for today; you make them for 20 years. So that the things that you implement must be able to serve a community for a long time after you have implemented those things. What Barbados must not be guilty of, is standing still because of the fear of criticism. We have to be a progressive, productive society that is inclusive and fair to all.”
He added that in Barbados, where the population is ageing and aged, persons must be allowed to work for as long as they are able to, if the country is serious about development.
While agreeing that society must find space to create work for young persons, the Minister said: “I feel very strongly that we have to find opportunities for older persons to continue to work if they want to…. The power of this entire thing is that people must have the dignity and autonomy to choose…. If you have the competency and capacity, and you can still work and you want to work, then you should be allowed to work.”
Mr. Humphrey noted that with some older persons stating that they want to give back, the society also had to create space for this to occur “in a way that is safe and to do so with dignity”.
Sharing the intricacies of the upgraded Vauxhall Senior Citizens’ Village, the Minister said it was fully gutted and it now comprises 14 buildings and a recreational centre with features that include metal handrails, grab rails for the bathrooms, new windows and roofs, new tiling, walk-in showers, water heaters, water tanks, generators and solar lights, among other things.
Pointing out that the Village is a model, he said the idea is to have similar facilities developed across the country but with the involvement of others.
“I think that the best way to run these things is for the state to be involved in their construction; to be involved in their management but to facilitate in such a way that BARP (Barbados Association of Retired Persons) or Soroptimist, or some other body could be involved in the day-to-day running of it.”
Minister Humphrey thanked all workers from the National Assistance Board, under whom the project fell, and acknowledged that they had worked extremely hard. He said, over the years, they had also done a fantastic job in “making sure the elderly persons in Barbados were well attended to”, even during COVID-19.
The Village and the recreation centre took under a year to complete, from February 2023, and during the works residents were shifted, in phases, to a facility in The Pine, St. Michael. The project was undertaken by Reon Cornelius of Empire Building and Construction
