Sarah Obama, the grandmother of US president Barack Obama, has joined our Age Demands Action campaign by donning an ADA T shirt and showing her support for older people’s rights around the world.

Too often older people are ignored or excluded because they are seen as a burden on society.

Not only is this wrong in principle, but this discrimination also ignores the fact that older people make huge contributions – through working, caring and sharing their experience.

Delegations of older people united around the world on 1 October, UN International Day of Older People, to push for better treatment from their governments and support Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states: ALL people are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Find out more about Age Demands Action.

Read the rest of our Age Demands Action blog.

Show your support by signing our petition.

A group of young men jeered when they saw the HelpAge International logo on the side of our vehicle: “Here come the old people’s organisation! We have lots of old people here – what are you going to do for them?”

Sadly, this was not the first time we had encountered this kind of cynicism. In drought-ravaged Turkana, northern Kenya, older people are often seen as a burden, beyond help or simply not a priority. “Survival of the fittest” is the order of the day in Turkana and older people are struggling to cope.

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