|
SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
|
Elderly call for improved
conditions
United Nations Integrated Regional
Information Network
|
Old
people are some of the forgotten casualties of |
Following
the collapse of the
"I bought an apartment in Soviet times and lived well. I planned to
live on a fairly-earned pension," Svetlana Valentinovna told IRIN in
the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. But following independence and the
introduction of a new national currency - the som - the 78-year-old soon
saw her plans fall apart. "My pension was not sufficient for
anything," she cried.
Adding to her pain, her own son deceived her by selling her home with a
promise of taking his elderly mother in afterwards. "Now I have to
live in a nursing home. I have nowhere else to go," she said.
While such stories are hardly unusual - even by Western standards - they
continue to strike a nerve in traditional
That all changed in 1991, however, when the nation became independent and
the newly established government found itself grappling with a transition
to a market economy. With such a problem to face, care for the elderly was
not high on the government's agenda.
That same year, Doronina Polina, an otherwise healthy and vigorous woman,
decided to move into a nursing home, only to die 10 years later of chronic
illnesses she caught there. "She was promised to have a good meal,
even a chicken broth for dinner. However, all that changed after
Of
At the nursing home to which Valentinovna is seeking admission there are
276 residents - mostly aged between 60 and 75. The oldest is Olga
Luganskaya, who is 100. About 70 percent of the residents are ethnic
Russians, the rest Kyrgyz.
Vladimir Klimayev, at 61, is one of the younger residents, and has lived
here for the last five years. "When doctors informed me that I had
cataracts, I decided to come here, because I had nobody to look after
me," he told IRIN.
And although the state-funded facility is one of the best in the country,
living conditions - not to mention access to health care - leave much to
be desired. "The standard daily allocation for nutrition per day is
[the equivalent of] about 70 US cents. However, this sum is far from
satisfactory for the minimum food basket," Tatyana Doynikova, an
accountant working at the home, told IRIN.
"We have to purchase some additional foodstuffs, because what is
provided here is insufficient," complained Ivan Kuzmin, a 77-year old
resident. "During Soviet times, the house inhabitants used to have
four meals a day, but now we only get two. My pension is US $10 and I need
medicine as well. I don't have enough money to have both food and
medicine."
Meanwhile, strapped for cash, state officials do what they can with
minimal resources, often keeping people four to a room. Senior therapists
and other workers at the home earn just $18 a month.
"There is no free medical aid here. Surgery centres are forced to
purchase medicine in order to conduct operations," Aisha Moldalieva,
a therapist at the home, told IRIN. "Soon winter will start, the most
difficult time of the year for the patients. Many of them have chronic
bronchitis. There is no money for treatment," she explained,
confirming that many of the facility's residents suffered from chronic
diseases requiring regular treatment, but had pensions insufficient to pay
for it.
House residents said foreign citizens occasionally visited them with gifts
of food, medicine and clothing, but such events were intermittent, adding
what the home really needed was help on a regular basis.
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use | Privacy
Policy | Contact Us