Joyce Daniels
Joyce Daniels
talks about the aims of GOCA:
"We started the Guyanese Organisation
for Cultural Advancement in 1976
to improve the education of the children.
There was no need
for any elderly grouping then.
As time went by,
the children became parents,
therefore the elderly contribution
as part of an extended family
gradually diminished.
So the poor old dears
were left alone."
In the West Indies,
people took the pleasure
to care for the elderly.
It is a different era now,
the extended family fabric is going.
Some people still try to cope here,
with a lot of difficulty
I can tell you.
So that's how
we picked up the elderly club.
There are other day centres
and pop-ins,
but they don't feel welcome.
And that is why we concentrated
on the African Carribbean elderly
in the community."
