SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 2 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife will grant aid for one million euros to clubs and groups of older people on the island. The subsidies will go to promote leisure activities and actions for people over 65 years of age.
This was announced at the 1st Island Meeting of the Elderly held in Taco, in which the strategy set out this year by the Cabildo was announced, within the Conecta Mayores program, to promote social inclusion and active aging of the elderly population.
The meeting was attended by the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín; the third vice president and counselor for Social Action, Marián Franquet; the CEO of Citizen Participation and Diversity, Nauzet Gugliotta; the second vice president, Berta Pérez; and the insular director of Innovation, Planning and Social Action Strategy, Ascensión Bacallado.
Nearly 300 older people from the island gathered at the event. Pedro Martín clarified that this year “the line of subsidies of one million euros is planned so that the elderly entities themselves are the ones that develop the activities that are of interest within the peculiarities and realities of the elderly residents they represent” . “We want to involve clubs and associations in promoting the actions,” he said.
The insular president explained that they have met “to explain the work carried out in the Cabildo through the Conecta Mayores program, so that they know first-hand the resources, services and programs that we have at their disposal. We have also taken the opportunity to collect their proposals for improve our policies for the elderly, and we have announced something as important as the participatory process promoted for the elaboration of the Insular Plan for the Elderly, the first developed in Tenerife that will give the elderly the necessary tools so that they can have the activities and services they really want and need.
Marián Franquet pointed out that with this new line of subsidies “the aim is to establish even more direct contact with the elderly population on the island.” “Associations for the elderly are the point of reference for elderly residents in their habitual residence environment, which makes them key interlocutors with the administrations. Our objective is to attend to the great diversity among the elderly and to deal with the different situations of loneliness that they can experience”, he highlighted.
Franquet added that they wanted to create “this meeting point to connect the different associations on the island and promote the exchange of experiences and experiences” and stressed the need to continue raising awareness about the importance of social participation and healthy leisure as social inclusion tool.
He added that they have been holding meetings in the different regions of the island with representatives of the clubs and associations for the elderly to tell them about all the activities and projects that are being implemented, “an intense work calendar that has helped us to see first-hand their concerns and realities”.
Franquet also valued the opening of the Island Office for the Elderly, located in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, “a service that older people had been demanding for years, after years of waiting they now have this point of information and contact “.
The event, held at the El Polvorín sports complex in Taco, contemplated the development of different recreational activities and workshops. Through the Socioeconomic Development area of the Cabildo, several workshops were given on traditional Canarian trades and customs, on rosettes, pottery, manual weaving, felting and soap making.
Also, through the Agriculture area, the activity El juego de las papas was organized to publicize the variety of potatoes on the island, and videos were projected to value the role of women in the primary sector, among other things. coexistence activities.
There was also an information tent from the Island Office for the Elderly, the Citizen Participation Office and the Tenerife Isla Solidaria program, dependent on Sinpromi, to inform about the actions for this social group and collect proposals from the associations and elderly people attending.
