The MINALOC department in charge of family affairs denounces the habit that increasingly infects Rwandan households to sent their elderly ones in centers to be taken care of.
Mr Hakizimana Vedaste ,who heads the department, said that this is caused by greed which is affecting Rwandan families.
He said that during a press conference that took place yesterday at the RBC (Rwanda Biomedical Center) offices in Kigali.
The press conference discussed on the mental illnesses and the ways to reduce their impacts on elderly people healthy.
For Hakizimana Vedaste , sending elderly in the care centers is rooted in the greedy whereby family members do want to permanently take care of them because of the costs it requires.
He said the MINALOC has reports on sad wishes of young people on their elderly parents’ death so to take hold of their properties.
Hakizimana advised families to involve the elders in developmental policies set up by the government so to help them pass their late age decently.
He urged the families that are financially fit to constantly care of their elderly because if they are not taken care of during their late ages, they encounter different mental illnesses that sometimes lead them to suicide.
Among the projects to help the elderly include the Gira inka project, giving them houses for accommodation, a monthly financial package for their survival, etc.
The WHO(World Health Organisation) defines the elderly as every human person who is 60 years old and above.
Scholars consider the elderly as libraries adding that of one dies , a library burns.
Research has shown that worldwide there are not less that than 800,000,000 while in Rwanda the statistics say that 6% of all Rwandans are in late ages.
According to the previsions the number of the elderly people will exceed 2 billion of individuals in 2050 according to the statistics.
Daddy Sadiki RUBANGURA
UM– USEKE.RW
