Growing old alone in Samaná: what the state counts, what it pays, and how to ask for help

Abandonment of an older person sounds like one of those things people discuss in general terms, in the register of “things are bad”. It is not vague. It is counted, with dates and a department responsible for counting it.

What gets counted

CONAPE’s complaints and case-monitoring department registered 2,675 complaints of mistreatment of older people between September 2020 and June 2025: 1,419 concerning women and 1,256 concerning men. The preliminary breakdown, per the Ministry of Public Health’s epidemiological bulletin, runs like this:

• Family conflict: 616
• Abandonment: 399
• Violation of property rights: 317
• Psychological mistreatment: 282

Now the part the table does not say. Those are complaints somebody filed. For a case to enter that number, a neighbour, a relative or a doctor had to take the step. Older people in that situation with nobody to file on their behalf appear in no row at all.

399 abandonment complaints. Those are the ones somebody took the trouble to file.

What gets paid

The state runs transfers aimed specifically at this group, and the exact amounts are worth knowing:

• TE-AMA: RD$600 a month, unconditionally, for older people with no income. It works as a bridge while a solidarity pension is processed.
• PROVEE: adds RD$400 a month to the Supérate card. It reaches around 83,333 older people.
• Solidarity pension: RD$6,000 a month. CONAPE reported roughly 8,421 solidarity pensions managed in 2025.

The distance between those amounts and the cost of a month of living is not a secret. And nationally, the MEPyD care study found total demand for care exceeds 900,000 people, against roughly 100,000 covered by public permanent-care services. More than 850,000 people do unpaid care work full time, 98% of them women. These are national figures — they are not published separately for Samaná.

On poverty in old age, one estimate circulates widely: 45% of Dominican older people would be poor, and 32–33% very poor. It is an estimate cited in press commentary, not an official series. Take it as an order of magnitude, not a measurement.

The most useful thing here: anyone can report a case

Here is the part almost nobody knows. CONAPE runs a programme called AMA — Acogida a Adultos Mayores — aimed at people over 60 in a situation of abandonment: on the street, in a hospital, or in their own home. And it is activated by a complaint from any citizen.

Any citizen. You do not have to be a relative. The person does not have to make the call themselves, which is exactly what matters: whoever is worst off is least able to call. If you know an older person living alone in a situation of abandonment, you can report the case to CONAPE, and the state has an obligation to respond.

Evelyn does this when a home visit finds someone who qualifies. It is often worth more than anything the foundation can buy: a stove is a stove, but getting a person into the system is a pension every month.

And then, the concrete part

Reporting a case does not solve the week. Pensions take time, and RD$600 or RD$1,000 a month does not buy a mattress or a month of medication.

That is the space the foundation works in: the specific thing the pension does not stretch to, bought and delivered while the paperwork moves. Both at once, not one instead of the other.

If you know of a case on the Samaná peninsula, write to us. We visit before we publish anything. See the projects