Toronto | QOL | October 3, 2014 | The number of elderly Somalis who moved to the North America particularly in Canada has increased steadily through sponsorship and through the refugee system. The number will continue to grow until Somalis settle their difference through peaceful means and find solution for their political differences. Many Somalis are still sponsoring their parent in order to save them from the death and destruction that is still going in Somalia.
Even though there is no statistics to know how many Somali seniors live in Ontario but many people believed that their number is high since majority of Somalis made their home in Ontario. Many of these seniors either live with spouses, children, family members, and in private residences or institutions.
In Ontario where majority of Somali people live, the number of seniors in general in the Province have also been increasing and is expected to grow from 1.6 Million to 3.04 Million in 2025. This means that seniors will make up 19.4% of the population. (source- toward 2025: assessing Ontario’ long –term Outlook. Ministry of Finance, Province of Ontario; Queens’s printer for Ontario; 2005)
Many of the Somali seniors have more problems than the average Somali person because seniors have mental stress and physical health problems, language barrier, climate problems, lack of income, cultural shock, relying on others and finally grand-parenting taking care of their children’s children. These seniors are getting older and are acquiring new diseases which cause them to behave strangely. Some of the diseases are Parkinson, Dementia, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol and Stoke which change their behavior
In order to deal with these aging seniors there are two kinds of people who take care of their elderly parents differently. Some people do take care of their elderly parents with the best of their abilities as they were taken care when they were child. They try to accommodate the needs of their parent’s needs and they don’t abuse their parents. They understand what their elder parents are going through and that is very good.
Equally, there are those who don’t treat their elderly parents with respect they deserve and they treat their parents the same way they treat their children. They don’t provide the support and the care they deserve. They neglect their parents. They treat their elderly parents as ignorant and know nothing about taking care of their affairs. When parents try to express their feeling they are told to keep quiet. They are told that here is not Somalia and they have to listen to them. These elderly parents felt humiliated and degraded. Parents keep quiet because they don’t know often where to seek help.
This kind of treatment is called Elderly abuse. Many Somalis don’t think what they are doing is actually abuse because anything outside of hitting or slapping is not considered abuse. For example, mismanaging parent’s money without being consulted with them is considered as financial abuse. Abandoning and not visiting, talking back angrily or yelling is also another form of abuse.
In addition, some people desert their parents and housed them an apartment buildings which sometimes far away from where they life. They also visit them occasionally and when they visit the little time that they see them is full of blame and disrespect. This kind of treatment of the elder person is also called abandonment or isolation.
This is a new phenomenon in the Somali society which rarely existed in Somalia that is abandoning the traditional methods of supporting; respecting and taking care properly of elderly living parents until death visits them. Life is not easy here in North America and everyday it is getting tougher and tougher therefore, it is very crucial that people respect their parents as required by our religion…
The word abuse in the Somali Dictionary has two meanings: (1). Caayid ama Aflagaado iyo (2) Qof ku xad gudubtid.
We have to remember that whatever we do to our parents will be done to us by our children. The children who are grew up in the Western World are less caring and less tolerant than us because they are growing up in a self-centered environment where everyone looks first after himself and second to the other.
Allah (swt) said in the Quran “treat your parents with kindness; if either of them or both reach old age in your presence, do not say “Uff”* to them and do not rebuff them, and speak to them with the utmost respect. And lower your wing humbly for them, with mercy, and pray, “My Lord! Have mercy on them both, the way they nursed me when I was young.” (17:23-24)”
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Abubakar Moallim
abukaar@yahoo.ca
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