I read Nick Lizaso’s article (“Seniors: our untapped national wealth,” Commentary, 4/11/24) with great interest. Thirty-six years ago, I was part of an organization founded for older persons. We called it the “Coalition of Services for the Elderly,” but within a month, we found that the name should be changed: not FOR the elderly but “OF” the elderly. It was immediately apparent that the elderly were perfectly capable of caring for themselves—and more importantly, each other.
There are currently over 1,500 community-based programs of the elderly throughout the Philippines, which gave birth to the subsidiary Copap, or the Confederation of Older People’s Associations of the Philippines. The groups include those involved in community organizing, advocacy, health care, income generation, recreation, etc. In some areas of the country, they have joined the government’s Fescap, or Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines.
If you were to ask me, “After 30-plus years, can you tell me, is there a moment that is the most important?”
Without a blink of the eye, I would respond that it was during times of group reflection that I heard people say: “I’m only grade two-educated, I never thought I could teach a class”; “I have been working all my life, I never thought I could become a health worker for other older people”; “I never went to school and I never thought I could talk to a senator.”
That says it all!
Ed Gerlock