Richard Blewitt, HelpAge’s CEO has been in Haiti this week. Below are his personal observations of the difficult situation older people are facing:
“Today, I am in Haiti visiting HelpAge’s emergency programme. Since January’s earthquake our staff have been working hard to ensure older people are cared for during this humanitarian crisis.
Arriving in the town of Leogane, the scene is like a disaster film: Almost everything is destroyed.
The buildings that remain are extremely damaged. They will have to be destroyed or will have to go through major reparations. Since 12 January, a big part of the assistance from HelpAge has been routed to this region.
Lauren Kessler (pictured here with a municipal nursing home resident) is a clinical social worker with the Rush University Medical Center who has been in Haiti assisting older people alongside HelpAge. She has been keeping the Rush newsblog updated with regular posts from Haiti.
The Rush team have been busy treating older people at the municipal nursing home in Port-au-Prince, as well as other tent cities. They have also visited nursing homes in Leogane, the epicentre of the earthquake, assessing the needs of older patients.
Although Les Cayes was not directly affected by the earthquake, the older people living there are feeling its consequences.
I met with around 30 older people in La Savanne, one of Les Cayes’ poorest neighbourhoods.
Most of the older people I spoke to had five or more children who were unemployed. A lot of them had mobility problems or other disabilities, such as blindness. Many complained of muscle ache and pain.
Since the Haiti earthquake over two months ago, ensuring older people, like Idalliese (right)
, get food, shelter, medical care and maintain their dignity has been a huge challenge.
Luckily though, we have great people working with us. For the next ten days, Dr. Martin Gorbien, a geriatrician, and Lauren Kessler, a licensed clinical social worker, both from Rush University Medical Center, are in Haiti.
Martin and Lauren will be among the first older adult specialists brought to Haiti to respond to the very complex medical and emotional needs of older people.
While they’re in Haiti, they will visit the municipal nursing home with a mobile clinic, as well as other care homes and hospitals. They will also assist with distribution of food, water and supplies.
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.
(more…)
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.
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.”
“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.
“No food, no milk, if they are feeding the children, why don’t they give us some too? I haven’t eaten all morning and I am hungry.”
This was the passionate plea of Antoniné, one of seven hundred displaced people who have been living in a temporary camp following the 12 January earthquake in Haiti.
As well as coping with the aftermath of the earthquake, Antoniné also told us that two of her children have died over the last nine months.
She lost everything during the earthquake: her house, clothes, food, furniture, everything. “The clothes I’m wearing are all I have,” she said.
Some of the main challenges in the camp include overcrowding and the outbreak of illness – flu, infection, intestinal worms and other viruses - due to a lack of water, sanitation and shelter. For many of the older people in the camp, these living conditions are particularly dehumanising and confusing; especially for those who cannot move around easily.
