Together, we are stronger
A story of Local Response by Balgubin from MACOSS
My name is Balgubin Indradir. I am here as a representative of MACOSS. My story is about elderly people. I am a retired civil servant. I belonged to a local association for the elderly. I discovered that there have many associations for elderly people scattered throughout the district where I live. However, there was no communication between them. And so I thought to myself why don’t they come together to work for the elderly.
So I took the initiative to bring together the associations in our region. I convened a meeting to explain how we could work together for the welfare of the elderly. I invited all the associations in the area and told them what I was thinking about. All of the people were enthusiastic and we formed a federation.
Now we have hundred associations of senior citizens throughout the district of Flacq, and we have a sort of federation. We often meet to do activities together. And we face many challenges. If there is a problem, we can work together to find a solution. We have come to have influence in the district: we can negotiate with the individuals concerned and we can hold discussions with the authorities.
When we came together, we were stronger and people listened to us.