In Brazil, elderly people retire but never stop working

Criado em 01/10/13 15h51 e atualizado em 01/10/13 15h52
Por Thais Leitão Edição:s Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – The Statute for the Elderly, a law that granted more rights to elderly people in Brazil, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this Tuesday (October 1). In Brazil, the life of people over the age of sixty has seen significant changes throughout the last decade. Nearly a hundred years old, Mr Pereira, as he is known among representatives of the Brazilian government, is still lucid and speaks proudly of his daily activities. In spite of being a retired employee of the Chamber of Deputies, he still works as the doorman of a private company outsourced by the Ministry of Justice. His willingness to keep himself busy, he says, stems from his belief that “work dignifies man.”

“If you stop and stay at home, you become idle, even if you like reading and have a lot of resources,” said Mr Pereira, who, due to his age, is helped by his colleagues whenever he goes for a stroll around the ministry. He said, in a tremulous voice, that the most rewarding part of his job is to be able to help people.

“My way of thinking the following: if I can help someone, I will. I get along with everybody here really well, I like to give them orientation, and advise people who walk by and talk to me,” added Mr Pereira, who arrived in the Brazilian capital in 1960, right on Brazil’s Labor Day – May 1. His relationship with work, however, had started long ago, when he was still a child helping his mother in Propriá, a rural area on the bank of the São Francisco river, in the state of Sergipe, where he lived with his family.

Without ever having finished high school, he says one of his greatest achievements in life was helping his four children receive an education. One of his sons is a retired doctor. His daughter is a also retired, a journalist. Another son is a civil servant, and his last son studied in England and became an English teacher and a translator, apart from working legislative advisor at the District Chamber. In spite of leading a comfortable life and living in his own apartment on the North Wing, a middle-class area in Brasília, Mr Pereira says he will keep working “for as long as possible”.

Mailman Francisco das Chagas Oliveira, 53, cannot be considered elderly according to Brazilian law yet, but he knows he will not stop working after his retirement, as he is the only one in charge of supporting his family – a wife and six children, besides himself. He admits he can already feel the burden of his profession, after working as a mailman for 27 years. But he firmly states that he does lack the energy it takes to walk thirty kilometers everyday to deliver 1.5 thousand letters on average. To accomplish this task, he rides a bicycle which he calls his ally, because it protects his back from the damages that could be caused by his heavy bag.

“I still feel very fit for work because I like what I do, but I see that a lot of people nowadays already feel demotivated when they join the profession,” said Oliveira, who was born in the state of Maranhão, in Brazil’s Northeast, but lives in Planaltina, a suburban area in the Federal District. “My advice for newcomers is, keep up the pace and focus on your work. Go to bed early, develop healthy eating habits, and work hard,” added Oliveira, who has already made plans to stay active after taking retirement.

“I’m planning to start up a [commercial] representation company to pass the time, yes, but also to increase my income, so we don’t lack anything at home,” he said.

According to the 2010 Census, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Statistics (“IBGE”), there are 20.5 million people over sixty years old in Brazil.

Editors: Davi Oliveira / Olga Bardawil
Translators: Fabrício Ferreira