Morocco prioritises helping the elderly
2009-10-13
Recent legislative action in Morocco indicates that the country is rallying to address the plight of senior citizens.
By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Casablanca – 13/10/09
 [ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/Getty Images] Solidarity Minister Nouzha Skalli signed 13 agreements to help Moroccan elderly. |
A new government strategy is in the works to help Morocco's growing population of senior citizens deal with issues such as health care, economic security and housing.
A ministerial committee, chaired by Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi, will outline the most suitable way to provide care for this sector and support the elderly in terms of health and income, according to Communications Minister and government spokesman Khalid Naciri.
"My ministry has adopted a participative and consultative approach with other sectors of the government, charity, and social protection bodies to analyse the current situation facing the elderly and set objectives for the strategy, which include incomes, pensions, health, housing and living conditions," Minister for Social Development, Families and Solidarity Nouzha Skalli said on Friday (October 2nd).
Skalli signed thirteen partnership agreements,with organisations working on behalf of the elderly. The projects are worth a million dirhams.
"These agreements will help strengthen the capabilities of these organisations, as they work to raise awareness of elderly issues and establish solidarity between generations," said the minister.
Civil society organisations expressed support for the government's desire to get a strategy up and running for an increasingly large and vulnerable part of Moroccan society.
"According to figures from the High Commission for Planning, the number of elderly people is rising. So we need to set up care structures," said Hicham Maârouf, chairman of the Hay Nahda Social Centre for the Elderly in Rabat, which was set up by a forum for solidarity that includes 36 charities in the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaërs area.
Moroccan charities are constantly asking for increased state support in order to continue to help the elderly. Several care centres have been established as a result of initiatives led by the charitable sector, which hopes that the government strategy will ease their task.
"Apart from material assistance, [seniors] need psychological support," MP and doctor Fatna Lkhail said, adding that a changing society means elder care needs to be given more thought.
"In the past, I was against the idea of [group] homes for this sector of society," she said. "But given that a great many people are unable to care for their parents because of the current economic situation, we need to create a structure to accommodate people when the worst happens."
Lkhail said authorities must support the new strategy with measures to deal with health insurance and provide adequate training for medical and social work staff. "There are only a few Moroccan doctors specialised in gerontology," the MP added.
In fact, there are only 15 geriatricians in all of Morocco, at least when counting those trained in France, according to statistics from the charity Gerontology Espoir.
According to the charity, there is a desperate shortage of paramedics trained in geriatric care. Although teaching courses for nurses include a module on geriatrics, there is still a lack of practical training. Most pressingly, there is still not a single hospital or day-care medical facility specialising in geriatric care.
Such issues weigh heavily on many of Morocco's senior citizens.
"The strategy must consider the concerns of the elderly," said retiree Salmi, 69, who believes that Morocco "lacks infrastructure dedicated to this category of the public".
"In addition to the creation of accommodations for those who cannot live with their families, we need to think about themed activity centres, where each senior can flourish in his or her own chosen field," added Salmi.
"Once someone starts getting old, people think they have no further value," said 72-year-old Halima Barki. "They are marginalised by those around them, who think they can't think any more. This situation becomes all the more difficult when the elderly person has no financial resources. You need to guarantee a minimum income for everyone, to give them autonomy."
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Lamiri Mustapha Posted 2009-10-13
According to their availability and their capacity, elderly people can be productive and contribute to the development of Morocco. Their souls remain young even if their bodies are aging. The soul is attacked neither by the body’s sicknesses, nor by aging. The government needs to give the choice, most particularly to retirees, to participate in all activities and actions led by civil society and both public and private establishments.
IBALINE EL HACHMI Posted 2009-10-13
Here, the category of persons ages 70 and over knew what it meant to be colonised, to be discriminated against, to be marginalised, to be despised, to suffer, and to shut up and produce more so their children could live. They always counted on their children for their own lives to be stable in their last days, without a worry nor even obstacles to them, concentrating solely on the divine way, to which they saw the right path, both soothing and calming. They also know what it meant to have know-how, to help one anther, to live in solidarity, to live together, to be patient, to believe in destiny, to obey God and those whom He appointed to be among his caliphs, who were the state or "makhzan". These people have always resisted the attacks that came with time, from the beginning of World War I, to the crisis of 1929, which made them – at the time being children and young people – co-operate with the inadmissible acts of the colonisers and further led to them uncorking the adverse impacts of the World War II. They lost their brothers and cousins in the war just to find themselves again facing the coloniser’s difficult repression. The latter deeply affected them by exiling their king, His Majesty, the late Mohammed V, and the entire royal family. This caused them to take to a long process of fights and struggles at heavy costs. These little people, despite everything, were able to rise up under the aegis of His Majesty, the late Hassan II, and miraculously educate and train their children, who are now today’s men and women in the government of His Majesty, Mohammed VI – may God protect him for his young family and for the population of elderly, without housing and without money.
fatima Posted 18 days ago
Hello- I have come to this website to express my worry for my mother, who has to have a surgery on her back because she suffers from lumbar discopathy and, as seen in the x-rays, it is causing a narrowing of the spinal canal. The analysis and the operation is going to cost us a lot of money. I would like to know if there is some type of insurance that can cover the costs. How do we proceed with this, given that she does not have the resources and neither do her children. She could become paralysed if the discopathy carries out its course. Give me a solution. –Thank you
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