specific needs of children and elderly left behind as a ... - IOM Moldova

CHAPTER I
free time: “I turn on the radio “Dor” (Longing), and I place the phone next
to me” (III_E_6). Other elderly mentioned that during their free time they
knit and bake: “I am ordered to bake bread, cakes. That is what I do. Just for
us to be able to live”(III_E_18). Lonely elderly have a monotonous lifestyle,
that depresses them and they perceive time spent as having no use. Relieving
the effect of loneliness is facilitated by communicating with their domestic
animals and crying. This situation sharpens their feeling of uselessness
and incapacity: “I don’t do almost anything from morning till dawn... I
wake up in the morning at around 8 am and I sit here, I cried this morning
and then I listened to the radio… watched the TV… Then I wash the dishes,
I feed the dog and I talk to it... But sometimes I can’t do anything but sit here
at the table...” (III_E_10). The study also revealed that some elderly just sit
on their chair, they have no radio, no TV and they can’t do anything else
because of their poor physical and moral condition: the impossibility to
move, disease, poor eyesight, etc.
The institutionalized elderly mention that they have to fight over the same
problem of the poor organization of their free time, nobody pays attention
to what the beneficiaries need: “Before, there were special rooms where we
could play chess and domino but now we do not have these. There are no
more games or events for us. They organize concerts and take us there with
force” (FG_E_3_urban_asylum). At the same time, those who provide residential
care services for the elderly mentioned: “I took them to the theatre,
to all theatres and to the National Opera and Ballet Theatre” (FG_E_3_urban_asylum).
Organization of the elderly’s free time remains to be a big problem. This
is frequently valid for the institutionalized elderly also. The family and the
community do not get involved in solving this problem. The elderly left
behind by children who migrated abroad to work spend their free time
in different ways: (i) those who have the possibility to move or live with
somebody watch the TV, listen to the radio, knit, etc.; (ii) others just sit,
they have no radio, no TV and because of their reduced physical and mental
capacities they have no other options of spending their time.
108