The Dominica Council on Ageing (DCOA) has received two computers and playing cards, among other items, courtesy of its new members Fitzroy and Anelia Bertrand who reside in the United States of America (USA).
The items were presented to 2nd Vice President of the DCOA, Nigel Lawrence, at a ceremony held at the DCOA office in Goodwill on Friday.
Super-numeracy member of the DCOA, Colin Bully, who initiated the idea said the council’s ambition is to have its members equipped with office facilities.
“Our ambition is to have all our members, all our associations, our affiliates as we call them to be equipped with office facilities with communications through computers and to be efficient in the field, because we are the umbrella organization for hundreds of other persons,” Bully stated.
The Council has been on a quest to get support and according to Bully, while they are grateful for the support received from government …we think much more can be done.”
Bully said the DCOA is also working to address loneliness, considered to be “one of the greatest challenges for older people.”
“The council has been advocating; it has been supporting the development of care centres – full-time and daycare centres – where the elderly can be brought in and attended to and where they can be given recreation and release from this loneliness,” Bully said, pointing out that there are friends in the Diaspora who are waiting to assist the council, “so we must make proper requests and approaches to them.”
Meantime, a new member of the DCOA and one of the facilitators of the donation, Fitroy Bertrand said he is delighted to assist the council and pledged, with the support of his wife and other friends to continue to help.
“A lot of people don’t realize that there are Dominicans who have done very well in the United States and they may not be visiting because sometimes they marry into other cultures, but we get to know them…,” he explained.
Bertrand tressed the need to identify the people who are ageing especially those who cannot assist themselves.
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