The representatives of 21 Elderly Day Care Centres received, today, a set of ten musical instruments including the flute, triangle, drum, jambé, chimta, and dholak during a handing over ceremony held in Port Louis. The Minister of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, was present on the occasion.

In her address, Mrs Jeewa-Daureeawoo expressed gratitude to the Mauritius Telecom Foundation for donating the equipment to the elderly with the aim of providing them with more leisure activities. She acknowledged the hard work and sacrifice of the elderly and attributed the development of the country to their lifelong contributions.

The Minister also indicated that a pamphlet on the measures for the social welfare of the population, as announced in budget 2022-2023, will be distributed so that they can better benefit from these measures. They include: basic retirement pension, invalidity pension, widow pension, medical domiciliary visits, and financial support for medical devices.

Furthermore, she stressed on the need for a balance between social and economic development while highlighting that both are equally important for the country to progress. She underlined that Government has implemented several measures aimed at enhancing the lifestyle of the elderly and is providing them with all kinds of aids and facilities to enable them to lead a healthy life.

The Minister however deplored an increase in the ill-treatment of the elderly. The ministry, she recalled, has put in place two hotlines to report cases of ill-treatments adding that it is currently working on an application (app) so that the elderly can get support from authorities at the mere click of the app.

Minister Jeewa-Daureeawoo also seized the occasion to urge the elderly to do their first and second booster doses while adding that the immunity provided by the vaccines is for a limited time span.