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Saviours
of the elderly
Velina
Nacheva
Sofia
Echo, August 7, 2003
|
 For many of the elderly
generation of Bulgarians, life is a time of grey despair, struggling to
survive on less than two leva a day.
Attempting to bring light into the greyness are the American Red Cross, in
co-operation with the Bulgarian Red Cross, which launched a project last
June aimed at helping elderly, low-income people.
Their intervention is timely. "Elderly people are doomed to
die," said 75-year-old Boika Kutsarova from Lovech with tears shining
in her eyes.
The ARC began its programmes in Bulgaria in 1996, during the overture to
the nation's economic collapse of the time.
"A lot of donors and NGOs came to Bulgaria to assist and we felt that
we should provide support targeted at elderly pensioners," Margaret
Stansberry, Deputy Head of the ARC Regional Delegation South East Europe,
said.
She said that they felt that other groups were better assisted. Initial
programmes focused on emergency food aid for vulnerable populations. These
projects, funded by the US Agency for International Development, provided
vitally needed supplies for 130 000 elderly pensioners across Bulgaria.
"We have been supporting this group ever since 1997, in 22
regions," Stansberry said.
One of the concerns that the ARC had was getting the supplies to the
elderly beneficiaries. This was a time-consuming process, and the
organisation realised it was meeting the need only on a short-term basis,
and that the solution was not a sustainable one, said Suzanne Savage, Head
of Regional Delegation South East Europe.
"We received a cash donation and piloted something different as an
alternative to the 22 regions," Stansberry said. This solution, she
said, was targeted at the six regions of Pazardjik, Lovech, Shumen,
Dobrich, Stara Zagora and Pleven.
A one-year project, "For Our Parents With Love and Care" was
launched at the end of June in Pazardjik and Lovech.
"We knew we wanted to do something different and sustainable with the
involvement of the community in these six regions," Stansberry told
The Echo.
She said that, following the receipt of money from various donors, the
business community and social workers, mayors and other members of the
public came together to decide what could be done to help the elderly.
Stansberry said that they facilitated the process and it took them almost
a year to become successful in this.
Savage said that the elderly people were involved in the process of
deciding what they needed.
The project, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, involves the
distribution of food commodities to 50 000 elderly pensioners in 22
regions of the country. Those eligible are people over the age of 65 years
who are not benefiting from any other humanitarian food programme, and who
receive the minimum pension of less than 50 leva.
The town of Lovech is setting an example by promoting charitable attitudes
and willingness to donate, starting with volunteers gathering supplies
like sunflower oil, canned food, rice and beans in the big shops in the
centre.
"The community needs to recognise that there is this problem and
these people are our responsibility," Savage said.
She said that if people combined their resources, it was possible to have
a positive result, beyond merely the creation of yet another organisation.
Prior to undertaking the process, the ARC did nationwide research through
the Vitosha Research agency, defining the main problems that the elderly
were experiencing: economic hardships, financial, medical, social and
administrative problems.
Asked what was their single most important need, pensioners cited food (36
per cent), assistance in paying utilities, such as electricity and heating
(27 per cent) and medical care (26 per cent).
Providing sustainable opportunities for food assistance to the neediest
elderly people through a Food Bank is part of For Our Parents With Love
and Care. The project also provides bi-weekly rations of bread from local
bakeries for elderly pensioners. In addition, beneficiaries receive beans
and vegetable oil every other month. All told more than 7000 metric tons
of wheat flour, beans and oil will be distributed.
Some beneficiaries of the project also meet criteria of additional
vulnerability, like living alone, being bed-ridden or having certain
mobility difficulties. Beneficiaries could also include people with
serious chronic illnesses requiring a special regimen of care.
In the region of Lovech 300 pensioners will be provided with the
opportunity to buy products from the Food Bank at a 90 per cent discount.
These will include residents of Lovech town, the neighborhoods of Coznitsa
and Prodimchets, and the villages of Yoglav, Doyrentsi, Goran, Slatina,
Slaviani, Lisets, Bahovitsa, Smochan, Presyaka, Drenov, Vladynia,
Kazachevo, Slivek, Malinovo, Prelom, Brestovo, Albanitsa and Leshnitsa.
Of these, 80 pensioners with additional vulnerabilities (experiencing
mobility difficulties due to old age, illness or disability) will get one
food parcel a month for four months during the winter season of 2003-2004,
as well as information and administrative services at their homes.
"I enjoy my time spent here because I am a person who has always been
very active," Ivanka Dicheva, 73, during a visit to the Mobile Health
Centre consulting room for dissemination of information. The centre
provides consultations on health issues and its services include measuring
the blood pressure of 1000 elderly people.
"Here we talk about poetry, bee-keeping and read books," said
Darina Bakalova. BRC full-time nurse Katya Georgieva said that she learns
a lot while measuring the blood pressure of the elderly. "They are so
wise and still have a sense of humour," she said. Georgieva is also
part of the project in Lovech providing on-site administrative and
information services at the homes of ill and bed-ridden elderly persons.
Last Thursday the elderly in Lovech had their weekly gathering dedicated
to stress and they all asked questions about diabetes and avoiding stress.
"We are also human beings and we have worked for the state all our
lives and are now abandoned in preposterous conditions," said Dicheva.
Dicheva's purse at that moment was empty; she had three leva to last the
next two weeks.
But surviving and food supply are not the most essential things for
good-looking and clean-shaven Dobrin Nyagulov, who cannot wait for
Thursdays to see his friends and play chess with them. In the future he
hopes for an expansion of humanitarian and social projects, so that
elderly people do not feel lonely.
Since 1997 the ARC has expanded its partnership with the BRC into a broad
range of capacity-building efforts, including disaster planning and
preparedness, upgrades to computer systems, support to headquarters, and
the introduction of various income generation projects for BRC programmes.
The ARC works with a global network of Red Cross, Red Crescent and
equivalent societies to restore hope and dignity to the world's vulnerable
people. This international movement brings emergency relief to disaster
victims, and improves the basic living conditions of those in chronically
deprived areas of the world. The ARC is guided by seven main principles
humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity
and universality.
The ARC has partnerships with countless organisations in the efficient and
effective relief of human suffering and empowering of people with the
skills they need to help themselves.
The ARC is currently working with sister societies in Eastern Europe,
Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas and in the former Soviet Union.
With the generous support of the American people, the American Red Cross
has developed into one of the strongest and most respected humanitarian
service organisations in the world.
Throughout its history, the ARC has developed considerable expertise in
meeting the the needs of the world's most vulnerable people and the
organisation's responsibility and capacity to provide humanitarian
assistance is internationally recognised..
In Lovech the project involves the municipality, Znanie Society, Lovech,
Union of Disabled People, Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute (HEI),
Businesses producing food products: Boni Oborot Holding, ÅÒ Nikolai
Nedkov (private trader), Local media: the newspapers Naroden glas, Loveh
Press, Factor and Stremlenie, the Municipal Radio and TV Cable Bulgaria.
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