OFF THE CUFF: No room at the inn in Panama

AS PANAMA city prepares for a $1.7 million Disney extravaganza parade, civil groups and commentators draw attention to some of the city’s social needs as the season of joy and compassion approaches.

La Prensa commented  in a Saturday November 21 editorial:

HOMELESSNESS is one of the social ills that creates most public awareness .Families and social programs are overwhelmed by people with mental illness, with citizens who have fallen into the hands of addictions, and others who have to face old age and loneliness with an itinerant life. Their daily experience is that each park is a home, every street is a dining room, and the total lack of privacy is their reality.

The efforts undertaken by the Municipality of Panama is contrasted unfavorably with the size of the challenge. Legal regulations do not allow forced or public institution to rebuild families for time lost by drugs imprisonment, emotional trauma or any other reason which caused the distress to a person.

We need new strategies and increased resources for the best results. As a society we stop  thinking of people as beggars and drug addicts and  regard these people as deserving of therapies and reintegration efforts to restore their dignity.