Prensa Latina
Policies from Cuba aim at sustainable aging in the face of the enormous challenges posed by its demographic dynamics, according to the president of the Chair of the Elderly at the University of Havana, Teresa Orosa.
Regarding her participation in the 14th Session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Aging, the professor insisted on the need to provide adequate space for the elderly population.
“Older people are part of the solution to the challenge,” acknowledged the member of the Cuban Association of the United Nations in an interview with Prensa Latina.
“We can do a lot for our own contemporaries and for ourselves through self-care, empowerment and knowledge,” she remarked.
Among other positive experiences for the event, the Cuban representative praised the work dedicated by the more than two thousand chairs spread throughout the island to promote education for older adults as well as their involvement with the study of the 2030 Agenda, the Decade of the Healthy Aging and other United Nations initiatives.
“The fact that older people have dedicated themselves to studying the 2030 Agenda is an example of how the seniors' program is embedded in a conjunctural moment of platforms that the world wants to carry forward,” she said.
However, the expert considered even more novel is the promotion of an approach in which this group is not only a beneficiary, "but we are part of those who contribute to the achievements and goals."
We have called that sustainable aging, she explained, we want to be seen not only as a beneficiary, but also as part of those who do and manage.
Faced with the enormous challenge of population dynamics on the island, Orosa recognized the importance of training in issues such as micro-entrepreneurship, an issue that in her opinion is possible for the elderly.
“There is also a trend in the world to create space for the elderly to be part of their own providers, that is, not only the family, the State, but one who can continue to be part of their income,” she added.
In this regard, the expert assured that, after 25 years of work, one of the achievements of the Chair of the Elderly is to make visible the importance of the education of older people and the entire environment to promote a new "gerontological culture."
“We are part of a generation, of a generational change that not only faces demographic growth, but also ages differently and has new needs,” she stated.