Head of the BKKBN’s North Maluku Representative Office, Renta Rego, said here on Tuesday said that this year, the province was assigned the task of establishing the first elderly school, which is centered in Togafo village, West Ternate.
"We want to maximize the potential of the elderly group who are still productive, namely elderly women who have stone crusher businesses, fostered by the Indonesian Smart Women Community (KICI) in Togafo village," she informed.
The elderly school called "Ringungano" was inaugurated on Monday (June 19, 2023) by the head of Ternate city’s family empowerment and welfare (PKK) team, Marliza M. Tauhid.
The name "Ringongano" has been inspired by the Ternate language and means "elderly who become hope."
"We hope that this elderly school can run well and students can feel the benefits because they will get material from teachers who are professionals in their fields," Rego said.
While inaugurating the elderly school, Tauhid said that the school’s establishment reflects the government's attention to the community, especially senior citizens.
She added that the school is expected to inspire the establishment of more schools for the elderly in other sub-districts for forming a resilient, healthy, independent, active, productive, and dignified elderly population.
Based on data from the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registry, senior citizens account for 11.01 percent or 30.16 million of the Indonesian population, meaning the country is headed toward an aging population.
In North Maluku, the proportion of the elderly population is 7.93 percent, that is 103,047 out of the 1,299,200 residents in the province are senior citizens.
The increasing elderly population in Indonesia is the result of the ongoing health and socioeconomic development carried out by the government, which is helping increase life expectancy.
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Translator: Abdul F, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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