NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (MARCH 03, 2022) — The Senior Citizens Division, in the Ministry of Social Development on Nevis, is set to resume its seniors group meetings from Monday, March 07, 2022.

Ms. Trudy Prentice, Coordinator of the division, said on March 03, 2022, that the resumption of meetings comes after COVID-19 restrictions halted the programme in 2021.

“The recreational groups centre meetings will be resuming on Monday, March 07, 2022. However, the days for meetings for the centre groups have been changed.

“On Monday the St. James’ group will meet at the Butlers Community Centre. On Tuesday, St. Paul’s and St. Thomas’ groups will meet at Cotton Ground Community Centre. There will be no meetings on Wednesdays from now going forward. On Thursday, St. George’s group will meet at Hanley’s Road Community Centre; and on Friday, St. John’s group will meet at the Cox Gazebo. Please note, all meetings begin at 10 a.m. weekly,” she said.

Ms. Prentice noted that although they had not met for the past 11 months, due to the increasing number of coronavirus disease cases at the time, the seniors were not forgotten.

“During that period our community caregivers they kept on going out. They kept on visiting the seniors to check up on them, for emotional support, for psychological support and to sort of fulfil their daily needs in areas that may be necessary,” she said.

In addition, Ms. Prentice noted that they did observe Seniors Month with reduced activities which included the “You are Not Forgotten Awards” for those who the staff were unable to access for different reasons including their health or family situations.

The unit also delivered care packages to seniors throughout the island in February.

“We showed love to our seniors in the month of love, February 2022. We did some care packages to let our seniors know that we did not forget them and that we love them and we miss them…

“We would have distributed throughout the island over 100 packages to seniors of our recreational group. We went from parish to parish daily during the entire week of February 24th to February 26th, 2022,” she said.