If you are a senior in Cuba you get a $10 pension, and a couple of kilograms of rice and beans with oil to live on for the month.
Thus almost all seniors are cared for by relatives living with them at home. The Cuban Council of Churches working with local Thunder Bay organization Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity (MEMO) has begun a project that will provide education in senior care to loved ones at home.
Recently under MEMO’s auspices, Karen Parker and Lori Owens, nurses at St Joseph’s Care group in Thunder Bay, spent a week in Havana and Santa Clara giving workshops in senior care. Cuban Nurse Martha Delgato, now a Thunder Bay resident and Canadian Citizen, provided interpretation for the sessions. Subjects included nutrition, mobility, prevention and treatment of bed sores and spiritual and emotional care during the aging process.
MEMO through the Cuban Council of Churches is sending ocean containers of redundant wheel chairs,walkers, bedding, incontinence products and much more, needed for senior care from Thunder Bay to Havana.
We are currently waiting for authorization for this container from the Cuban Government. The plan is that the workshop participants will in return, teach others, multiplying the dissemination of senior care information, including the use of provided flash drives with power point presentations in Spanish.
This is an exciting opportunity to make an impact on a huge social problem affecting tens of thousands of our near neighbours and for many of us our providers of our winter holidays.
