HelpAge International Latest blogs

Chad: Food is scarce and prices are rising

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:29:30 +0100

The Sahel region of Africa which covers countries from Mauritania in the West to Sudan and Eritrea in the East, via Chad is facing a new severe food and nutrition crisis. In Chad, the number of vulnerable people increased from 500,000 in 2009 to almost four million in 2011 due to floods, disease ou...

Make it Ageless goes to Brussels and meets Mamy Rock!

Tue, 15 May 2012 16:36:08 +0100

A Saturday in Brussels Getting up at six in the morning on a Saturday when you have a wretched cold isn't exactly everyone's idea of fun. But strangely enough, I didn't actually mind too much. I was in Brussels, joining my colleagues Ellen and Navdha to promote the Make it Ageless campaign at the...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's supergranny!

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:51:58 +0100

This might sound like a joke but grandmas around the world do super things (not limited to 1980s TV). We just don't hear about them often enough. So when I met 72-year-old Dum Ream in Cambodia, I wanted her story to be told. Dum like millions of other grandmothers around the world is raising three ...

Rapid ageing in East Asia: Problems, solutions and getting care on the agenda

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:34:25 +0100

A large sign on way out of Yangon’s airport has lost its “l”. It now says “We come to Yangon”. Indeed we do. Over 150 people who work for or represent older people and their issues have come to Myanmar to discuss rapid ageing in this region and how care services need t...

World Congress on Public Health: A great opportunity for Age Demands Action on Health in Ethiopia

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:26:33 +0100

As part of Age Demands Action on Health, HelpAge participated in the 13th World Congress on Public Health held in Addis Ababa on 23-27 April 2012. The event brought together 3,000 health practitioners, experts and organisations from around the world to share their experiences and ideas. The theme f...

Supporting multigenerational households affected by migration in Kyrgyzstan

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:51:14 +0100

Much of HelpAge's work in Kyrgyzstan to support older people and their families is focused on the issue of migration. A big part of Kyrgyzstan's "middle generation" has migrated to other countries in the region, such as Russia, looking for work. This means that villages all over the country are ful...

Let's Make it Ageless: Solidarity between generations

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:39:00 +0100

We've all seen it in the news: younger people are getting tired of the injustice and unfairness in this world. Over the past few years since the global financial crisis, Europe has witnessed many protests, demonstrations and social unrest led by young people. European citizens appear to be more di...

No age limit to good health: Age Demands Action in Bangladesh

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:54:54 +0100

There are no "older people" in Bangladesh and yet one in ten people are soon to be over 60. Confused? I am talking about the murky world of categories and definition. You see, in a country where what constitutes an "older people" is at best vague and inconsistent, what seems like a simple matter of ...

East Africa crisis: Staying positive during hard times in Borena

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:40:44 +0100

The year began with a devastating drought for the pastoralists and farmers of the Borena zone. Thousands of families lost their livestock and their crops, and were left with deteriorating livelihoods. November 2011 brought about the much longed for Hagaya rains, filling the water ponds and trenchin...

Campaigning for healthcare for older people in Ethiopia

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:07:10 +0100

When older people visit health clinics many say that the doctors do not really listen to them. For me it is different, they pay attention when I speak because I have a background in public health. I can challenge the doctors I feel I can challenge them and often accompany friends when they see the...

World Health Day: The challenges and opportunities of ageing

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:44:31 +0100

Population ageing is a global phenomenon that is occurring fastest in low and middle-income countries. While ageing presents challenges to society, it also creates many opportunities. Older people make important contributions as family members, volunteers and as active participants in the workforce....

Older people lead first Age Demands Action on Health : The right medicine

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:05:48 +0100

The pain is getting worse. You leave your home at 5am to walk to the nearest health clinic. Then you stand in a queue for more than six hours. You finally reach the front of the queue, but are told that those stood behind you will be seen first. Why? Because you are an older person. We all know th...

With World Health Day approaching, active ageing is the key message

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:57:50 +0100

The First World Congress on Healthy Ageing took place this month in Malaysia,�with over 1,500 delegates attending from�nearly 40 countries. The main theme of the congress was�holistic and active ageing. It was heartening to see the holistic focus of the conference,�as well as�the�effort�to bridge g...

Age: Not an excuse to ignore people

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:32:40 +0100

I got involved with HelpAge because older people should help others and raise future generations. In 2010, I worked on the project against bullying in schools where we, as older people, interacted with younger generations. In 2011, I was a part of Age Demands Action and a delegation member. I repre...

Community care for older people: Knowledge sharing workshop

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:13:38 +0100

Shalom from friendly Haifa, Israel where, along with my colleague Dina, I have been attending a training course facilitated by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on community based services and care for older people. I want to share some interesting insights from the training so ...

Researching older people's health in Ghana

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:41:56 +0000

Akwaaba! Greetings from Ghana! I'm Gill Miller from the University of Chester in the UK and I have just set up a small research project to find out about ageing and the health of older people in Accra, Ghana. This work aims to gather evidence about the health and health needs of older people from d...

World Water Day: Older people's contributions can make a difference

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:01:34 +0000

The�6th World Water Forum concluded recently in Marseille, France�and generated a great deal of interest among policy makers, governments, development agencies and civil society.�However, older people's concerns about current water crises, how they are affected and their potential contributions were...

Tackling HIV and AIDS in Africa: A lasting impact

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:51:56 +0000

At the beginning of March, the HelpAge HIV team spent a week in Uganda with our partners. The aim was to plan the fifth and final year of our Africa programme funded by the UK Big Lottery Fund to prevent HIV and alleviate its impact in multigenerational households. Still struggling to work out how ...

Voices of older people: Raising awareness of ageing

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:26:58 +0000

Having had more time to reflect on the discussions at the Commission for Social Development session in New York earlier this month, I am struck by the almost exclusive focus on youth poverty and unemployment. Very few member states explicitly mentioned older people as a social group and even fewer ...

International Women's Day: A woman's work is never done

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:30:56 +0000

International Women's Day is observed annually today,�8 March to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history and across nations. HelpAge is contributing to this global celebration by raising awareness of the struggles faced by many older women across Africa: Poverty, poor health and livin...

Changing lives in Gaza

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:15:49 +0000

I spent the last part of my trip to Palestine in Gaza. Crossing from Israel to the Gaza strip is a bizarre experience - like travelling between two different worlds connected at Erez by a long tunnel through no man's land. The roads stop being smooth and there's rubble on the side of the streets. P...

Justice for Mama Diliu on International Women�s Day

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:18:10 +0000

Today is my 55th day in Tanzania. I moved to Dar es Salaam from Kenya, where I worked with the HelpAge Africa Regional office for over a decade. I have received a warm welcome from all corners. Smiling faces greeting me with a friendly "Karibu" are a daily encounter at the office, mall or a stall a...

From Cherkassy to the United Nations

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:37:45 +0000

At that point on a Friday afternoon, I had never heard of Ternopol, nor was I familiar with Cherkassy and certainly not aware of Khmelnitsky. That was until late last Friday afternoon. You see, there comes a point in the last hours of the working week, when you would rather not turn to another spre...

Supporting older people's rights in Hebron

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:17:56 +0000

Last week, I met with our partner PCCDS, the Palestinian Centre for Communications and Development Strategies,�based�in Hebron in the West Bank. PCCDS work on various issues, but their work overlaps with ours when it comes to supporting older people. A grandparents' house�in Hebron PCCDS and Help...

Reality bites: Obstacles for older Palestinians in need of healthcare

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:19:09 +0000

Ensuring older people enjoy their right to appropriate and accessible healthcare is a fundamental part of our work. The idea can be summarised quite simply in a sentence, but the reality of achieving this is far more complex. This is exactly what I am discovering as I visit our programmes and partn...