SNYC marks International Day of Older Persons |02 October 2019

To commemorate the International Day of Older Persons, staff of the Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC) accompanied by a group of youths visited a group of elderly who are sick and bedridden at their homes.

The activity is also in line with the ‘values’ programme which kicked off the value of compassion for the month of October, November and December.

“We are launching our ‘compassion’ value which will go until December and in those three months we will be visiting elderly people all over Mahé and the inner islands,” said Penny Belmont, chief executive of SNYC.

Ms Belmont added that during the coming weeks the participants will be building rapport with the elderly through positive interactions and will be visiting people who have contributed to the society in one way or another.

She added that the interaction will be beneficial for them as it will give them a chance to chat and interact with the youths and share with them a little bit of wisdom.

“The visit will be beneficial for the youths as well as for the council as we will be able to sit down with and talk to these personalities who have shaped our society in various ways,” Ms Belmont added.

For this first visit the SNYC team called on a total of 12 elderly one of whom was retired priest Gustave Lafortune at the Domus. The priest noted that many young Seychellois leave the church after their Holy Communion and Confirmation and that the work that SNYC is doing is important as young people are responsible for the way the future of our society is shaped.

Another notable figure that was visited was Florence Benstrong, who served as the first Mayor of Victoria. Mrs Benstrong, who started her career as a school teacher at St Jean Bosco – an all boys’ school – remarked that the youths nowadays are very disobedient unlike the days of the National Youth Service when students were as “straight as arrows”.

Justus Moncherry, a member of the Seychelles National Youth Assembly, said that the visit is important because it gives young Seychellois a chance to interact with the elderly and learn things unknown to them till now.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of yesterday’s visits.