Kotabaru, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The Kotabaru Women Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning Agency (DPPPAPPKB) graduated 20 elderly school students, Thursday.
Kotabaru's Assistant for Government and People's Welfare Minggu Basuki said that UMI Resilient Elderly School is a long life informal education provided for elderly to increase their knowledge, attitude, behavior, and skills, as well as their quality of life.
"We hope that old people to remain enthusiastic. Age is not a barrier to learn. On behalf of the District Government of Kotabaru, I express highly appreciation for the graduation of UMI Elderly School," he said.
Head of DPPPAPPKB Sri Sulistiyani said that the tough elderly school or commonly called "SELANTANG " is an informal education held in Kotabaru Tengah Urban Village, Pulau Laut Sigam Sub-district, starting July 31, 2024, as the first class.
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For three months education from July to September 2024, four meetings were held with 12 materials related to health, religion, and socio-culture.
The number of participants was 20 elderly people, five men and 15 women.
"The aim is to improve the quality of Elderly Family Development Group (BKL) program in creating resilient elderly and increase elderly's understanding of SMART (healthy, independent, active, productive, and dignified) concept," said Sri Sulistiyani.
The resource persons came from cross-sectors, including DPPPAPPKB, Health Agency, Social Affairs Agency, and Puskesmas Sebatung (community health center).
Head Representative of South Kalimantan National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) Farah Adhibah who attended the graduation said that based on Law No. 13 of 2008 an elderly person is someone aged 60 years or over.
In almost five decades, the percentage of elderly people in Indonesia has approximately doubled (1971-2020) to 9.92 percent or about 28 million people.
Indonesia is among the top five countries with the largest elderly population in the world. According to BPS data in 2021, the number of elderly people in Indonesia has reached 10.82% and in 2045 it is estimated to reach one-fifth of the total population of Indonesia.
"We hope that the elderly school graduates of this time can reap the various lessons they learned during school well, so they are able to become healthy, independent, active, productive, and dignified until the end of life," said Farah.
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