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.

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For older people in Petit-Goave food and shelter are of much help, but some needs go beyond the tangible.

Older women gather on Friday at the ruins of what used to be the Catholic Church of Petit-Goave.  They were there to take part in the Way of the Cross which is organised every Friday during Lent.

This year, this has taken on a lot more meaning for these older people. They are very attached to their faith and although the building is no longer there, destroyed by the earthquake, they hope God is listening to them.

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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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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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“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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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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Latest on HelpAge’s relief effort out in Haiti:

Wednesday 10 February:

HelpAge distributed food and basic essential items.  It is the first open-air distribution made exclusively for older people. The distribution was planned with IPESI (Institute of Promotion of Studies and Integrated Care), a group run by Madame Njemba Jean Suze.

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“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.

“The clothes I’m wearing are all I have”

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. 

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