Turkey to become new hub for elderly care

After collaborating with a U.S. nonprofit agency, Turkey is now ready to build a commune for the elderly in order to promote better old-age care.
Gerontologist Dr. Kemal Aydın, chairman of Turkey's World Healthy Ageing Council (WHAC), claims the group is ready to launch an enormous retirement tourism project which is expected to provide retirement villages that can host up to 1.5 billion people.
Representatives of We Care for Humanity (WCH) arrived in the Turkish capital on Tuesday to discuss the way forward with WHAC.
The collaboration aims at the construction of the "Eco-Palace for Humanity" and is set to secure Turkey's reputation as a leader in the field of healthy aging globally. Turkey is already well-regarded in the field of health tourism, thanks to its natural beauty, technical infrastructure and cultural heritage, said Aydın.
Referring to the World Aging Summit - held in Turkey in 2005 and attended by around 1,000 prominent officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - Aydin said Turkey could expect to match this reputation with that of being a hub for healthy aging.
"The World Health Organization (WHO) also attended the summit back then and told us that Turkey should become a hub for healthy aging. Since the summit, we have worked hard to achieve this and rolled up our sleeves for the 2022 World Healthy Aging Assembly Expo," he added.
Sultana Mariam Amor, founder of the WCH, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the project is also planned to launch in Uganda, Cambodia and the Philippines, adding that the Eco-Palace concept provides a different role for every country depending on specific needs.
"In the Philippines, we designed our Eco-Palace in response to a recent incident in Marawi, an island which was seized by the Daesh terror group a number of years ago. We had around 20,000 displaced families in need of permanent homes as a result. We will be responding to these kinds of emergency situations in affected countries, whereas in Turkey, elderly people from lower-income groups are the priority for us," Amor said.
She said their partnership with the WHAC will promote healthy aging and is aided by the backing of President Erdoğan. Amor will also promote the project in Turkey as the current healthy aging ambassador of the program," Aydin stressed.
"The Eco-Palace will be a center for free education, health care, livelihood program, culture and arts for humanity. This area of ecotourism, where elderly people will spend time to live a healthy life, is also set to make an economic contribution to the country," Amor said.
Amor said the key to bringing the project to life is to first secure a space for construction. She emphasized that the goal is to sit down with governments and the private sector in order to both secure the necessary land and embark on joint ventures by which investors can profit.
"All eco-palaces are ecotourism where people can come and travel this will sustain and become an additional income for the Eco-Palace," Amor said.
The world currently has 962 million people over the age of 60 - more than twice the number that lived in 1980. By 2050, this number will more than double again to reach nearly 2.1 billion. This rise in the elderly population, along with declining birth rates, means that by the middle of this century, there will be more people over the age 60 than those under the age 15.
The elderly represent a massive opportunity for almost every sector, with consumers facing new challenges that businesses are ready to provide solutions for. By addressing those challenges, companies can build new markets for their products and services while also creating social value.