Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor–News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

For the third con­sec­u­tive year, the Geri­atric So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go (GSTT) host­ed its an­nu­al Christ­mas Ham­per Dri­ve for the el­der­ly. GSTT vis­it­ed four homes for the aged in Ari­ma and three homes in Tacarigua.

Last year, the group vis­it­ed homes in cen­tral Trinidad, while in 2023, they vis­it­ed homes on the north coast.

Young vol­un­teers and the GSTT team met ear­ly at the Cathe­dral of Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion, Port-of-Spain, on De­cem­ber 13 where they loaded Christ­mas ham­pers filled with food, fans, pil­lows and more on­to a truck. They trav­elled by maxi to var­i­ous homes to dis­trib­ute the ham­pers.

At each home they vis­it­ed, the vol­un­teers sang Christ­mas car­ols and parang for the el­der­ly who were de­light­ed with their per­for­mances. Many of the res­i­dents al­so sang along. The at­mos­phere was filled with nos­tal­gia which cre­at­ed a mo­ment of con­nec­tion.

“We were asked to re­turn to spend more time with the el­der­ly adults so that our young vol­un­teers can hear some more of the sto­ries that they have to share,” GSTT pres­i­dent, Dr La­vanyaku­mari Thon­dava­da told Guardian Me­dia.

Thon­dava­da said the ini­tia­tive would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the ded­i­ca­tion of the GSTT team and vol­un­teers as well as the gen­eros­i­ty of donors.

She added, “As the Christ­mas sea­son ap­proach­es, we ex­tend warm greet­ings, and heart­felt best wish­es to all. May this sea­son bring peace, joy, and abun­dant bless­ings to every house­hold.”

GSTT has en­cour­aged T&T’s el­der­ly pop­u­la­tion, aged 65 and over, to take the flu vac­cine, as they are at high­er risk of de­vel­op­ing se­ri­ous flu-re­lat­ed com­pli­ca­tions com­pared to young, healthy adults.

She said the GSTT rec­om­mend­ed the an­nu­al flu shot as it is es­sen­tial for pro­tect­ing old­er adults, along­side oth­er key vac­cines, due to age-re­lat­ed im­mune de­cline and in­creased health risks.

Ro­man Catholic priest Fa­ther Mar­tin Sir­ju, a found­ing mem­ber and di­rec­tor of GSTT, of­fered bless­ings and prayers to each home for the Christ­mas sea­son.