The United Nations Organization (UN) projects that by the year 2050, older adults in Costa Rica will reach 31% of the total population, approximately 1 million 800 thousand inhabitants.
These figures show the real panorama that the country will face in the not too distant future and the urgent need to generate public policies hand in hand with private alliances, as is the case of the cooperation agreement signed by Coopenae and the Partir con Dignidad Foundation (FPCD).
Sensitize, educate and train
The joint work agreement aims to sensitize, educate and train the Costa Rican population in the comprehensive care of elderly, highly dependent or terminally ill people.Likewise, to make Costa Rica the first compassionate country in the world under the “Todos con Vos” methodology.
The Compassionate Cities project –whose pilot plan is being carried out in the central canton of Cartago- is led by the Partir con Dignidad Foundation (FPCD) and Coopenae, with technical advice from the Spanish New Health Foundation.
The signing of the agreement between Coopenae and the FPCD will allow the project to be expanded to other cantons in the province of Cartago and the rest of the country, with the aim of transforming Costa Rica into the first compassionate country in the world.
Concern for others
“Coopenae is a visionary partner of the proposal, our postulates of concern for others and solidarity are reflected in this agreement; to be compassionate is to understand that we must care for and accompany the members of the community who are at the end of their lives. We have the ambition to transform Costa Rica into the first compassionate nation in its entirety, especially impacting people who live in poverty and extreme poverty,” said Nazira Burgos Berdugo, Manager of Institutional Relations at Coopenae.
“At the cooperative we want to focus on the quality of life of patients and also pay special attention to the caregiver, who plays a fundamental role. We already had a first successful experience in Cartago and we know that this will be the case throughout the national territory, we will become a world power if we join forces,” Burgos pointed out.
For Isabel Ovares, president of the Foundation, “With this cooperation agreement, Coopenae becomes a determining actor, with concrete actions that will have a decisive impact on the training, awareness and empowerment of Costa Rican society in the protection and comprehensive care of the population in the final phase of their lives.
“The decision to support the “Cartago with you. Compassionate City”, and projecting that support for the goal of making Costa Rica the first compassionate country in the world, is also a reflection of the vision of those who run the cooperative. It is the reaffirmation of the values that have characterized it as a Cooperative: transparency, respect and social responsibility under the cooperative principles of solidarity, democracy, equality and equity”, Ovares stressed.
Costa Rica is one of the Latin American countries with the greatest ageing. Currently there are more than half a million people over the age of 65, which represents 9.2% of the total population, according to studies by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).
According to data from the FPCD, the families that must face the enormous challenge of caring for a loved one do so in the solitude of their homes or without training and almost 80% of the caregivers are women, the majority without receiving any remuneration and working strenuous days.
