For the last three years I’ve been taking our excess fruit to an older person’s terminal care home in San Isidro.

Even on brief visits, the poverty of the environment was very evident so when the Club (the new Perez Zeledon International Womens Club which I wrote about in December) decided to get down to investigating community needs that we might support, two of us set off with the camera to capture some evidence on this ‘good cause’.

Hogar Betania is a voluntary sector home, not supported by the Government system – they do aid other homes in town but there just isn’t enough money to go round.

Some residents with pensions do contribute to their care but others, including a couple of refugees and a man brought in ‘from the streets’, have no income. So the home relies heavily on voluntary contributions for its very survival – and even for basic food supplies.

Club members are busy designing a cookery book celebrating the wonderful food we can buy here, including ‘what to do with these weird new vegetables’! But until that’s finished and ready for sale, we have no money.

None the less, we wanted to have something to aim for, and as we’re keen to avoid the image of rich Gringos handing out cash, we also considered how we could help by giving time and energy, every bit as valuable.

So I was delighted when members agreed in principle to support Hogar Betania, and also to provide a ‘fiesta’ – nice food and some entertainment – for another residence which is in good material state but which lacks funds for social activities.

Hogar Betania’s needs are immense. Walking round, and having worked in elder care, I would immediately condemn most of the beds and furniture … commodes with broken seats, decrepit wheelchairs, old fabric chairs that are hard to clean if a resident has an ‘accident’, and a shortage of bedding, towels and equipment for staff to do the job.

On one level, its all very sad, but the staff are wonderful and they do a tremendous job in spite of it all. The residents are well fed, cared for with dedicated affection, and always spotless. And I’ve never smelt those nasty smells so redolent of care institutions – not something I can say about every care home I’ve been in back home in the UK!

On the basis that we can help by rolling our sleeves up, we did! – since they have no money to pay a gardener, a fortnight ago, a small crew spent a first day cleaning up the front entrance gardens – much to the amusement of some of the old boys!

My friend Maria, a sister in the local garden centre family, offered some free plants and rolled up with a worker to do the digging, the lovely man joined in this women’s escapade with great enthusiasm! With the promise of more plants and labour from Maria’s brother, we’re hoping to tackle the main garden round the resident’s ‘rancho’ sitting area very soon.

Its interesting to reflect that the elderly residents might get more pleasure out of pretty and colourful plants than they will from a shiny new bed … there’s maybe something about life’s priorities here?

For now, a very modest start and we had great fun doing it – let’s not mention putting a machete through the water supply – the resultant shower was SO refreshing!

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