Dorcas Faworaja, 71, Nigeria
Growing old in Nigeria commands much respect. When you are growing old people give you more respect than when you were younger.
If you have children and your children are well to do they take care of you. If you are unlucky and don’t have children, you are taken to an old people’s home. Nobody is left alone in the street.
You are a senior citizen from 60 upwards and you are defined as old. There are YWCA programs for older citizens. We care for them, teach them art work, feed them and occupy them.
Personal feelings: Apart from my leg I feel comfortable. Only my leg makes me feel old. And when people call me Mama I feel old. That is like an old woman. At times I am embarrassed and ask, “Am I so old that people recognize that I am old?”
Secrets to aging well: I do things. When I work and when I play I do it more gently, not in excess, and I try as much as possible to eat a balanced diet.
Interviewed by Bonnie Fatio, founder of AgeEsteem,during the YWCA World Council in Nairobi, Kenya, July 2007.
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Posted by Bonnie Fatio on September 4, 2007 8:35 PM | Permalink
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