PORT-AU-PRINCE, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) – Elderly people need more attention in the response to January’s earthquake in Haiti and more appreciation of the role they can play in the relief effort, say aid workers.

Some 800,000 Haitians, or about 7 percent of the population, are over 60, says Help Age International and more than 200,000 elderly have been affected by the earthquake.

“It’s a population that has its own specific needs and can be very vulnerable – in some ways just as vulnerable as the under-five or infant population,” Cynthia Powell of Help Age International told IRIN in the capital Port-au-Prince.
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I hope this is not “Haiti in the news” overkill.  Perhaps today is all about my trying to digest nearly four weeks on the ground in Haiti, sitting at my kitchen counter in DC. Unshowered, a little dazed, and near tears for 48 hours straight.  PTSD?  Or an appropriate reaction?  Hm.

This NYT editorial hits the nail on the head based on what I saw and heard on the ground. Here is an excerpt:

“There is a burning need to tap the energies of Haitians — not just the devastated national government. That means at the grass-roots, church, business and neighborhood groups that know the country, speak its languages, and are deeply committed to its rebirth.

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It ain’t pretty.  The Washington Post’s Bill Booth did a nice job capturing the not-so-nice reality on the ground for older Haitians.

“PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — It was always hard to be old in Haiti, but after the earthquake, to be old and poor feels like a curse, say those who are both.”

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A great article in the New York Times yesterday really illustrated the impact of Haiti earthquake on older people. It said that 7% (around 84,000) of the estimated 1.2 million Haitians displaced by the earthquake are over 60.

Journalist Ian Urbina interviewed older people living in shabby makeshift shelters among the rubble of what was once the Municipal Nursing Home in Port-au-Prince.

110-year-old survivor Junie Sufrad (pictured left, photo courtesy Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times) said: “I don’t know if it makes me lucky or unlucky to still be here.”

Another surivivor, a somewhat confused and disorientated older man in a wheelchair, asked a fellow resident when they were going to return to Port-au-Prince. “This place is terrible,” he said.

Ian described how older survivors are struggling to cope with difficult living conditions. The daily routine they were so used to in the home has gone. Keep reading

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As we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Commission on the Status of Women is meeting in New York to review how the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action has been implemented by governments 15 years after it was adopted.

I wasn’t working in this area 15 years ago and so was only vaguely aware of the 1995 document and its contents. So when I read it from start to finish for the first time last year, I wanted to stand up and cheer!

Having watched geo-politics being played out more recently between member states in other UN meetings, how could they all have agreed to something so progressive? 

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“I think HelpAge could be a really cool thing,” said Michael Andreini, HelpAge International’s new health guy, as he rolled a cigarette on his knee.

“I mean, you look at the brochure and it’s like we work ‘with the governments of various countries to provide social protection which include basic health care, education and income.’

“I mean, this is cool stuff.  I’m going to do clinics.  I’m gonna train ladies with children to be geriatric health care providers.

“Then you do a dual thing, you are helping women and children, because those are vulnerable populations, too.  A vulnerable population helping a vulnerable population.

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On 16 February, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines signed the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010. The Act includes the introduction of a new non-contributory pension which will be targeted at the “poorest of the poor” over the age of 60.

It will also bring into place a range of tax breaks for senior citizens that are expected to affect 4.2 million older people, as well as health insurance provision and a death benefit. 

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Chile had a “massive earthquake” at the weekend.  So far, around 700 people have died.

Times that by 300.  That’s how many people died here in Haiti six weeks ago.  217,000 people.  That’s more than twice the population of Cambridge, Mass.  It’s the population of Providence, RI, plus Albany, NY’s.

Seventy-nine times as many people died in Haiti on 12 January as those killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Now 1.2 million are homeless.  Roughly half are living in spontaneous camps in and around Port-au-Prince, which is about the same number of residents in Washington, DC.  Right now, the UN deems 21 camps “overcrowded” — a total of 180,000 people.  This make-shift camp (abovet), which is on a golf course in the middle of Port-au-Prince, has an estimated 45,000 people living there.

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One HelpAge staff member in Haiti has the life experience and tenacity to make a real contribution.

“My seven-year-old said he will only go to school if I sit beside him,” said Jean “Neil” Moretta, a 40-year-old English-speaking Haitian (pictured) who HelpAge International hired in February to assist with its emergency relief effort and beyond.

Neil “Junior” and his mother, Kateline, were at her aunt’s house when the 12 January earthquake struck, so were unharmed when their apartment building collapsed.  But Neil “Junior” is still distraught about losing his home.

Luckily, the grown-up Neil had had a house built in Port-au-Prince and already was in the process of moving his family there.  So he’s optimistic things will settle down for his son very soon.

Neil’s generally very optimistic.  And landing a steady job with HelpAge International earlier this month has been a boon for him.  A slender man with fine features, a ready smile and smooth, café-au-lait skin, Neil’s very attentive and proactive in his work.

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As HelpAge’s Haiti Communications Coordinator, I’m sharing one of my first experiences of the situation older people are facing here. I visited the Asile St. Jean de Dieu, a nursing home in Petit Goave where HelpAge is assisting older people:

I learnt about the history of Asile St. Jean de Dieu from its founding director Mademoiselle Mayard, a 65 year old school teacher.  Back in the 1970s, the older people of Petit Goave were housed in a high school.

With the help of the local priest, Mlle Mayard found a church and coverted it into a nursing home.  Another priest in Puerto Rico heard of the project and decided to help by sending money every month for years.

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