For many years almost every programs must come from central government, Jakarta. Nevertheless, this year a program for elderly care finally comes from Bali and will be replicate in other parts of Indonesia. As a consequence of demographic transition during recent decades, the Indonesian population is aging rapidly.Despite the increase in the number of elderly people, aging has not yet been identified as an important policy issue in Indonesia. The Government has paid little attention to this group, as can be seen from the lack of access to social security and social services for the elderly.
“Since 1988 we promote elderly care programs in prevention to make our elderly people active and healthy, and this year I feel that I have hope for our old people”, said Professor Luh Ketut Suryani as the founder of Yayasan Wredha Sejahtera Bali after signed agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim Indonesia to promote elderly care program in other part of Indonesia.
“We will start to implement the program by inviting our stakeholder to Bali and learn from our activities as their modality to create similar program in their area”, said Suryani proudly that her works finally find an acknowledgment. This recognition has big impact for the elderly life in Bali as the government can only take care of 750 people while the Suryani’s foundation has been taking care for more than 5000 elderly around Bali since 1988.