Centenarian Jacqueline Ada, fondly known as Mama, is using the Ewondo language to tell hundreds of people gathered at the Our Lady of Victories cathedral in Cameroon's capital Yaounde, how God has protected her since she was born more than a century ago.

Like many of her peers, she does not know her exact age as her parents did not register her birth. However, Mama remembers one thing very clearly: when received a marriage proposal as a teenager, Catholic missionaries told her that Pope Benedict XV had advised Christians to be baptized before getting married. Since Benedict XV was Pope from 1914 to 1922, Mama is convinced that she is now more than a hundred years old.

Mama is one of jut a few dozen Cameroonians who have lived a hundred years or more. According to UN data, life expectancy in the central African state is 55 years for women and 52 for men. Cameroonian elderly persons suffer limited access to health care since only 10 percent of them are covered by social insurance schemes.

Loneliness and discrimination 

Mindjama Jules, 73, says some retirees have to wait years before they start receiving their pensions. Many are abandoned upcountry as their children move to the cities in search of better opportunities. In a country where social infrastructure like health centers, nursing homes or even old people's homes not fully developed, old people depend on family members or relatives for help.

"The other day medical staff in a hospital insisted that I should bring some one to take care of me and pay my bills, but I told them that I had no one and that I had no health insurance coverage," Jules recalled, adding that in many families old people are neglected because people feel they are not of any service to the society. "When you grow old, people consider you as a witch."

Eighty-year-old Joseph Tardze agrees with Jules. He too says, it is difficult for them to live longer because of the discrimination they suffer. "People reject me because I am old. Sometimes they call us witches. We suffer a lot." Tardez is calling on the Cameroonian government to come to the aid of old people. "The government should help us, we are suffering and we have nothing to do. Our children are the ones who should have helped us, but we are still helping them," he said. 

Professor Pierre Ongolo Zogo, a Cameroonian researcher and a medical practitioner, said that despite the challenges, people can live for a long time if they respect some principles. "For those between 40 and 60 years of age, pay attention to your diet, avoid becoming obese or overweight," he said. "It is regular exercising, it's avoiding alcohol abuse, it's reducing tobacco consumption, it's also about organizing more systematic screening for some of those diseases that come with old age."

Policies for an ageing population 

Bibehe Pierre of Cameroon's ministry of social affairs, which is responsible for taking care of elderly persons, says the government is coming up with a law that will protect them and make their old days enjoyable. He told DW that old people have the impression that there is nobody taking care of them and feel that their own children have abandoned them. This has prompted the government to develop a policy designed to address needs of the elderly, such as their well being and reintegration into the community.

The United Nations Population Division estimates that by 2050, the number of people aged 60 and above will increase to two billion, up from the current figure of 901 million. Eighty percent of them will be living in developing countries.

The theme of this year's UN International Day of Older Persons is "Take a stand against ageism." It aims to raise awareness of the impact of an ageing population and the need to ensure that people can grow old with dignity and continue to participate in society as citizens with full rights.

Author: Moki Kindzeka / ja