Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer
Dare to care. -
Photos by Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
Paulette Burke spent her earliest years growing with grandmother, farmer Casilda Stewart, of whom she says, "I learned from her to learn to appreciate people for who they are. It is not the things that you give. It's the way how you give it, and after giving, the love that you show."
Now a grandmother herself and far from wealthy, Burke was recently given a merit award by the National Council for the Aged for her selfless work with seniors living in Beechwood/Greenwich Park and Lyndhurst areas of Kingston.
In the last week, she was also chosen by the National Council for the Aged as the top candidate for the International Volunteers Award.
Exceptional work
She helps them to keep healthy and young.
Beverly Edwards, parish organiser for National Council for St. Andrew and senior social worker, told Outlook, "Burke's work with the senior citizens has been very exceptional.
"She helps them to keep healthy and young and participate in programmes for their good. She sits and talks with them. She is a friend to seniors from Trench Town, Jones Town, the Lyndhurst area, Maxfield and Whitfield.
"Sometimes they are unable to even help themselves and she sees to it they are referred to places where they can get help. She herself is frequently ill but, even then, she will make sure that they are attended to and have something to eat."
The council's citation for the award received in October said that she was to be commended for going beyond the call of duty to people who were often hungry, lonely and ill.
Get someone to fill in
Paulette 'Junie" Burke speaking with her seniors at the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre
Burke admits, "Even if I am sick and in the hospital, I will make sure to get someone to sit in for me. When I am here, if someone is missing, I make it my duty to go out and look for them, find out what is happening to them and try to assist. If there is something to be done, we will do it."
After Hurricane Dean in August, the 51-year-old woman, who is now in charge of the seniors' programme at the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC), was out and about finding out who was in need. With the help of Suzette Thompson, livelihood manager at WROC, she was able to provide many seniors with mattresses, groceries and tarpaulins.
February 19, 2008 will mark five years since Burke, fondly called 'Junie', created the seniors' programme at 47 Beechwood Avenue, which the members have named Beechwood Seniors' Number One. "They gave it their own name," she explains.
Seniors are in need of protection and care, Burke asserts. "I know many who are abused. Because of fear they keep quite. Some will tell me but we have to be sensitive. We counsel them and say better days are ahead. We proceed cautiously."
In addition to feeding them a balanced meal when they come to 47 Beechwood Avenue, Burke and her team assist in getting medication and registering the old with Jamaica Drugs for the Elderly Programme (JADEP). Also, through the National Council for the Aged, the seniors are given bus passes and other forms of assistance.
"We help them to fill out their forms so they can get their pensions. Those who do not have NIS, we try to put (them) on to the PATH programme, formerly Poor Relief, to assist them.
"When they come here on Tuesdays, I try my best to find out who are the needy," Burke explains.
"There are some who have no money to buy food. If the problem (is) too big for us, we assess them completely and seek help for them."
Elderly subjected to abuse
Junie at Women's Resource and Outreach Centre on Beechwood Avenue on Tuesday November 20.
Because the elderly are economically dependent, they are often subjected to abuse in their homes.
Burke admits that there are "one or two occasions when I could have called the police, but I don't. I go into the homes and try to deal with it the best way possible so it does not involve the police. They are family, you have to know exactly how to break down the feuds."
Burke frequently mediates conflicts between the younger people and the older generation.
She reflects, "There was one lady who was coming to the meeting every Tuesday and because her daughter wanted to go somewhere, she says she did not want her to continue. Her daughter beat her."
Another man was beaten by his two children "because he won't die". One senior, a mother, who put her son on her (land) title, is now being told by the son that he will be taking her to the Golden Age Home to live.
"We have been asking the parish council representative to intervene" in that situation, Burke said.
When her seniors come through the gate of WROC, however, they leave all their troubles behind.
"They look forward to coming out. It's next to their home," Burke states. "Some will come from 7 in the morning, long before we start, and don't leave until time to close. They let down their hair. They eat their hot meals, play dominoes, Ludo and bingo. Others just sit and meet or sit and look.
"Sometime I go over and say 'What happen?' and they say, 'I am fine, I am just glad to get away from home'."
Trips and interaction
Our seniors are in need of care and protection Paulette Burke says. Burke, an International Volunteer awardee, is in charge of the seniors' programme at the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre.
Every three months, the WROC team takes the seniors to places of interest and beauty such as Somerset Falls in Portland. Some swim, others just listened in tranquility.
On Tuesdays when the Beechwood Seniors Number One meet, they enjoy the interaction with one another. "They talk about their issues and before you know it they have found a friend," their programme manager states.
The seniors are also frequently the recipients of information from the Diabetic Association and the National Council for the Aged and other organisations with useful information.
About the speakers, Burke comments, "I would like to see more people helping. I would also like to see systems in place for our seniors in a more permanent way. We have to be begging and it's not all the time that we will get the help that we need."
In her five years at WROC, Beechwood Number One has just "grown and grown" with, currently, over 70 on roll. "Several persons have died and we go to funeral services and do what we can do," Burke comments. On Tuesday last, with 28 of the members, she attended the funeral of Linette Gordon, who was a member for three years.
"The way we come to grow together, we try to appreciate death. It's not a gunshot and not someone killed by violence. We learn to live with it," Burke states.
Speaking about her award from the National Council for the Aged, Burke states, "Honestly speaking, I was very excited and thrilled with it.
"Some part of the society fail to see that it is the seniors who bring things together in order that we can achieve. It is a pity that a lot of their children become ashamed and do not want anybody to know that they have a mother or a father so they are put in the old-age homes or they are shut away at homes."
Before we leave her, Burke puts in a plug for her seniors: "On December 11 we will be having the seniors' annual Christmas dinner. I would love if some could contribute. It's a worthy cause. I have written a lot of letters to organisations asking for help. I will see what happens."
