JEDDAH, 14 January 2007 — Ninety percent of the more than 600 people living in the Kingdom’s 10 homes for the elderly have no children or relatives to take care of them, according to Awad Al-Radadi, deputy minister of social affairs.
“Generally, elderly people in Saudi Arabia are taken care of by their children and relatives as it is their religious duty. The state, which is represented by the Ministry of Social Affairs, takes care of those people who have no relatives,” he said in comments published yesterday.
He put the number of elderly Saudis whose children refuse to help them at only two percent of the total. “At present there are 10 homes for the elderly, both men and women, in major cities. They are run by the ministry in addition to four others supported by charitable organizations.”
He said people living in these homes had not married or perhaps they simply had no children. He added that the Kingdom’s elderly population accounted for five percent of the total population or about 600,000.
He opposed the move by some Saudis to use public hospitals as nursing homes for their parents and urged administrative authorities in different regions to take action to stop such practices.
“The ministry provides food, housing, health care, clothing and a monthly sum of SR120 to inmates of the homes for the elderly,” he explained.
Homes for the elderly are rare in Saudi Arabia, but with people’s values changing, they are increasing in number. For many elderly people, such a place is a death sentence handed to them by their children. Suffering from unpleasant illnesses, for many the thought of being abandoned by their families and the prospect of being forgotten by society is a devastating experience.
“The people you see around you are my real family. My children abandoned me and left me alone; they (the staff) look after me,” said Mastoor Awaied, who has been in an old age home in Makkah for the past nine years.
Seventy-year-old Salem Edah in the same home has a very grim and shocking experience. His family has never visited him since the day he was admitted.
One thing that is common among all the inmates of these homes is the fact that their spirits are low as they face a bleak end to their lives. The doctors and social workers working there, however, give them hope by providing excellent services.
Staff at the homes helps the old people shower, eat and even cleaning them when they use the toilet. Many of the old people visited explained how well they were treated and said that their own ungrateful children would not have been able to take such good care of them.
