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| "Twilight Villa" nursing home being watched by nurses in one of the centre's rooms on the edge of Yangon. Set up in 2010, the Twilight Villa retirement home already cares for 120 people over the age of 70 and has more than 100 people on its waiting list. |
Set up in 2010, the retirement home already cares for 120 people over
the age of 70 and has more than 100 people on its waiting list.
The wards are crowded with beds, all just a few centimetres apart,
filled with elderly people who sit quietly staring into space or lie huddled
under blankets.
On one, a frail old lady whispered into the ear of a smiling plastic
doll, her only companion since she moved to the facility from the shed she used
to occupy in her family's back yard.
Khin Ma Ma remembers another woman who was thrown out of a car next to a
rubbish dump, where she was found covered in cuts and bite marks from rats. She
made it to the nursing home but survived for only a few months.
"Sometimes we find only a small note in their pockets with their
name and age. That's all. When we ask those questions, they can't even
respond," she said.
"Old people should not be treated like that in a civilised society
and those who abandon them should be prosecuted."
- Here to die -
Decades of misrule by a brutal junta, stringent sanctions and ethnic
conflict have reduced Myanmar to one of the poorest countries in the world.
Now it is facing a demographic crisis that is already squeezing the life
out of Asia's former tiger economies.
The UN estimates some nine percent of the population is currently over
65 but that will surge to a quarter by 2050, outstripping the number of
under-15s.
"Economic realities oblige many people to continue heavy manual
labour into old age to survive," said Janet Jackson, the UNFPA's Myanmar
representative.
"This underlines the need for adequate social services and policies
that serve the aged."
Already in tatters after 50 years of underinvestment by the former
junta, Myanmar's health system is struggling to cope.
Since taking office last year, the new civilian government has set up
only one new care facility, exclusively for the over 90s, which receives just
10,000 kyat a month in funding around $7.
Traditionally most seniors are cared for by their families, but the
pressures of poverty, double-digit inflation and rapid urbanisation mean more
and more people are abandoning their relatives.
"We have nowhere to go. We have come here to wait to die," said
Hla Hla Shwe, who has lived in another facility in Yangon run by monks for the
past three years.
"Here we feel less alone and people feed us, thanks to the
donations," the 85-year-old added.
- Good old days -
But to the east of Myanmar's commercial capital, one group of actresses
is finding solace together in their twilight years.
Set up by former screen queen Nwet Nwet San on a donated piece of land,
"Mother's Villa" has become a refuge for more than 20 aging film
stars.
"The later years can maybe be very difficult, even for former
actresses," the 77-year-old said.
"I saw some people die in terrible conditions, so I decided to set
up this place."
Inside the building the shelves are littered with awards and film
memorabilia, while fading photos of the women dressed in glamorous outfits from
their heydays line the walls.
Today they often dress up in the same outfits and makeup for fun, and
they have even set up a dance troupe which performs each year at Myanmar's
water festival celebrations.
"I had nowhere to go but here I am happy with my friends,"
said resident Moe Thida Moe, 73, who recently suffered a stroke.
"It reminds me of the good old
days."
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