District governance: Empowering seniors via digital literacy

Some local seniors explain that entering the digital age and mastering everyday technology can be challenging for them.

Staying up-to-date: Mr Fung hopes to learn more skills about smartphone operation by joining digital training courses organised by the community-based help desk. Source from news.gov.hk

“At our age, we are out of loop when it comes to modern technology,” said Mr Fung, who began using a smartphone just about two years ago.

He recalled an experience that he felt completely lost when he needed to register online for driving licence service.

“I hope to learn more, enabling me to do it by myself in the future,” he added.

The “Smart Silver” Digital Inclusion Programme for Elders is exactly tailor-made for seniors like Mr Fung to provide various avenues for them to become self-sufficient in using technology.

Convenience strategy: Mrs Chung appreciates the convenience of the help desks’ location and finds the course content beneficial for daily life. Source from news.gov.hk

Encouraging integration

The Government is actively following up on various district issues to achieve practical benefits for the public. To help elderly individuals integrate into the digital era and enjoy the benefits of digital technologies, the Government announced in the 2024-25 Budget that the Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Fund would allocate $100 million to subsidise non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement the digital inclusion programme, with an expectation of benefiting over 100,000 seniors.

Following an open invitation for proposals and evaluation, the fund has appointed 12 NGOs to carry out the programme.

Such organisations have established 40 regular and fixed-point community-based help desks across 18 districts, with at least two support points in each district. The help desks provide digital training and technical support to seniors aged 60 and above, particularly singleton or doubleton elders living in the old districts and public housing.

Caring staff: Mrs Lai expresses gratitude to the staff for finding a solution to her tech challenges. Source from news.gov.hk

Elderly-convenient courses

Mrs Chung, who lives near one of the community-based help desks, praised the programme for providing convenient locations and digital training courses that are helpful for her daily life.

“The lessons are useful. For example, if I need to travel by bus, I can search for the route and the waiting time for the next bus. Plus, I do not need to wait a long time at the bus stop. Instead, I can start walking to the stop when the bus is about to arrive.”

Positive response: Working at one of the service providers, Federation of New Territories Youth Project Assistant George Li indicates that their staff would take the opportunity to promote free courses to seniors when they seek assistance. Source from news.gov.hk

In addition to training courses, seniors can seek assistance at the community-based help desks for other technology-related issues.

Mrs Ng said she was relieved to learn that she could get the technical assistance she really needed after one support point helped to restore her cell phone.

“I just dropped my mobile phone on the floor by accident, and the interface became so zoomed in that I did not know how to fix it.”

Mrs Lai, who lives with her husband, expressed appreciation for the staff's eagerness to help solve various challenges.

Purpose-driven goal: Digital Policy Office Senior Management Services Officer Alice Chan stresses that the implementing organisations prioritise training seniors to use mobile applications for easier living. Source from news.gov.hk

“If I do not understand something, I come here to seek assistance from the staff.”

Positive response

One of the service providers reported that when it comes to the programme, it has received a warm response from the elderly community.

“Some people come here by way of referrals from friends, and others call us for details about the courses,” said Federation of New Territories Youth Project  Assistant George Li.

He noted that some seniors ask about how to contact family or check the weather, and during such inquiries, they take the opportunity to promote free courses.

Additionally, to enhance outreach, the organisation plans to set up street booths to better engage with their target users.

Focused promotion

Digital Policy Office Senior Management Services Officer Alice Chan explained that community-based help desks are strategically located in places that are easily accessible and frequented by seniors, or with higher pedestrian flow such as community centres, district councilors’ offices, community living rooms and elderly centres.

Furthermore, she stressed that implementing organisations will prioritise training seniors in using mobile applications that make life easier for them, including iAM Smart, eHealth, HA GO, 18 CM Clinics, My SmartPLAY and HKeMobility. They would also promote public awareness of cyber security.

“Organisations can also introduce other suitable mobile applications to elders, such as instant communication, entertainment and electronic food ordering applications, to facilitate elders in adopting digital technologies in their daily life, striving to promote ‘Smart Living for the Silver Years’.”

HAVANA (AP) — On a recent afternoon, a group of elderly residents slipped through the wooden doors of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Old Havana and gathered for a modest meal of ground meat, rice, red beans and crackers topped with mayonnaise — all finished with a cup of strong Cuban coffee.

“May the Lord bless from his height, the meal our belly will take with delight,” they chanted in unison before beginning their lunch, a ritual that takes place three times a week in the dining hall adjacent to the church.

Among the nearly 50 elderly people was Carmen Casado, an 84-year-old retired chemical engineer who attends without fail. Her monthly pension of 2,000 Cuban pesos is equivalent to $4 at the informal exchange rate that people use on a daily basis. She lives alone, has no children and does not receive remittances from relatives abroad.

She says the church meals are a needed supplement to the meager rations, such as bread, rice and beans, that she can obtain for free from state-run stores, or bodegas.

“This is a lifeline for us retirees with small pensions," said Casado, speaking in a rapid-fire tone. “What we get from the bodegas alone is not enough.”

The elderly are among the hardest hit by the severe economic crisis on the island, which has worsened dramatically since the beginning of the year following an oil embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Most are former government employees — teachers, doctors, nurses, technicians, custodians, lawyers — whose pensions are usually less than $10 a month and who must face cuts to the basket of goods that have been subsidized for decades, as well as the loneliness brought on by the growing emigration of young people.

They were young when Fidel Castro entered Havana and lived through all the major events on the island, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to U.S. President Barack Obama shaking the hand of Raúl Castro in 2016.

Now, their revolutionary spirit is being tested in the latest crisis, which is forcing them to sell cigarettes on the streets, line up for a loaf of bread and seek free meals offered by churches and some state institutions.

After lunch, Casado walked the four blocks home to tend to household chores she still performs without assistance. Her home is on the second and top floors of a 19th-century building that, like many in the capital, is falling apart.

Born in 1942, Casado was a teenager when the revolution led by Castro triumphed. Her life has spanned the island’s most defining moments, from the 1962 Missile Crisis to the so-called Special Period following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She also lived through the 1970s and 80s, when the island's economy was heavily subsidized by the Soviets and when the Cuban system seemed to promise a brighter future.

“This is our life; we were born and raised here,” she said.

Even before the economic crisis worsened and before the wave of emigration over the past five years, Cuba was already one of the countries with the oldest populations in Latin America, a trend nudged further by high life expectancy and low birth rates.

According to Cuba's National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2024, almost 26% of the population was aged 60 or older. That is almost twice the regional average of 14.2% in the same year, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CEPAL.

The last five years have seen a population decline in Cuba of nearly 1.5 million, primarily due to migration. The number of Cubans residing on the island, which stood at 11.1 million, has fallen to just 9.7 million.

The impact of the crisis and the exodus of youth is visible at a glance. Elderly people walk the streets alone —some rummaging through trash, others standing in long lines for the bread and rice provided by the ration book, the basic subsidized foods the state guarantees to every Cuban.

The plight of the elderly is so critical that the government recently authorized private entrepreneurs to operate elder care services and residential facilities, a move marking a significant departure from the island’s traditional model of total state control.

Casado insists that she is still privileged. She is mentally sharp and has no physical impairments — she doesn’t even use a cane — and manages entirely on her own. Her only medication is half a tablet for blood pressure, which, “so far,” remains available at the state-run pharmacies.

Despite the poverty and loneliness, she continues to have faith in the government and blames the country’s woes on the United States.

“We’re doing everything we can here to move the country forward,” she said. “But the thing is, we have a very powerful enemy, and he’s right there, right on our doorstep."

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A photo of the late Cuban President Fidel Castro sits alongside photos of Mercedes Lopez Rey’s family on a bedside table at the 83-year-old’s home in Old Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

An elderly man makes his way in his wheelchair while a friend walks a bicycle beside him, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, carries a meal from a church-sponsored program to a homebound friend, in Old Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Elderly residents watch a tai chi class for seniors at the Belen Convent in Old Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, stands in her one-room apartment in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)