It's been three years since the war began in Syria. Currently, around 72,000 Syrian refugees are aged over 60. In conflict situations, older people are among the most vulnerable, with specific needs that must be taken into account.
On the third anniversary of the start of the Syrian conflict, HelpAge International is highlighting the plight of the civil war’s “silent casualties”: the invisible victims of the war who have succumbed both in Syria and also in host countries to what were previously manageable chronic illnesses.
On 20 February in Madrid, our Affiliate HelpAge España is hosting an event to officially launch a committee in support of a UN convention on the rights of older people. The committee is formed of the 17 most important civil society organisations in Spain currently working on human rights and age related issues.
This year’s Commission for Social Development (CSocD) opened yesterday at the United Nations in New York. The priority theme this year is "promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all".
HelpAge International and partners in the Philippines have helped almost 50,000 people in the three months since Typhoon Haiyan hit on 7 November 2013. As well as providing direct help to older people, we have been raising awareness of the needs of people over 60 who are routinely neglected in emergency responses.
HelpAge has distributed around 3,500 bags of rice seed and more than 2,000 bags of fertiliser to farmers in the Philippines who who lost their crops and livelihoods in Typhoon Haiyan.
HelpAge International, in partnership with Handicap International, is working in Lebanon and Jordan where there are more than 35,000 Syrian refugees aged 60 or over. Our work is funded by Age International and the Disasters Emergencies Committee (DEC) and includes direct cash assistance to vulnerable refugees and families living in urban areas in Jordan.
On 22 December, HelpAge and its partner Coalition of Services for the Elderly (COSE) and Mercy Malaysia organised a Christmas party at the Ormoc District Hospital. Children sang carols and all generations joined in playing games and dancing. HelpAge Santas handed out gift baskets of fruits, biscuits, chocolates, balloons and toys to inpatients and a Christmas packed lunch was distributed.
HelpAge and its local partner, Coalition of Services to the Elderly (COSE), have now distributed food aid to more than 40,000 of the most vulnerable people in 28 hard hit communities in the area around Ormoc City on Leyte Island.
To mark Human Rights Day on 10 December, HelpAge International has published new research that reveals the diversity of discrimination faced by older people around the world.
On 10 December 2013, Human Rights Day celebrates 20 years of the United Nations’ achievements. HelpAge International is marking the occasion with new research that reveals the wide range of human rights violations experienced every day by many older women and men around the world.
The news of Nelson Mandela’s death at the age of 95 has been met the world over with a sense of sadness and loss. It is also, however, a time to reflect on the huge achievements of one of the most remarkable and influential men of the last century.
