Blogs

During the rest of my trip to Sri Lanka, I had the opportunity of visiting one of HelpAge and Age UK's 30 Sponsor a Grandparent (SAG) programmes. This is a scheme funded by the British public to provide for...

I volunteered at HelpAge Sri Lanka last summer and was fortunate enough to witness the great work being carried out by the organisation. Having volunteered at a number of charities in the past, my time at HelpAge really stood...

One of the Friends asked me today what I thought of Haiti. I told him that although I find the infrastructure horrific, I love the people. Though people are people and of course there are many differences, this is...

We just ended our second day of training "Friends" - trained volunteers and camp residents, many of whom are older people and beneficiaries themselves. The training yesterday at Delmas was really hot, crowded and in a pretty small tent...

I just finished the second day of this first three day training and feel like I am running a marathon in a minefield. Many of the participants are talented and willing, but many have been so traumatised since the...

I started my part of the psychosocial training yesterday at the Censhop Hospital. I have 16 participants: Steve, the HelpAge Psychosocial coordinator, four HelpAge nurses, two HelpAge public health docs, two programme people from HelpAge, a HelpAge commun

Last week, as part of the 54th London Film Festival, I went to see The First Grader. A film described as "the inspiring story of an 84-year-old Kenyan man's fight for education and equality". When you work for a...

You wait to read a news story about global ageing for weeks and then they all come at once! It's been a busy week for those of us who trawl through the global media looking for stories about ageing....

Life in Kyrgyzstan Lack of confidence in tomorrow still remains. Living standards have gotten worse due to a sharp rise in prices of main food items because there is no price regulation. Medicine is no longer available for older...

I read with relief and joy that the aidworker, Frans Barnard, working for Save the Children, has been freed by Somali gunmen. Two things immediately struck me from the article "Somali gunmen release British hostage" by Mustafa Haji Abdinur...

Following Duncan Green's (Head of Research at Oxfam GB) blog post "What does global aging mean to development?" (his spelling, not mine), I was more than happy to take him up on his kind offer of writing a response...

In preparation for visiting Kyrgyzstan I had read about HelpAge International's work in the area, especially in reference to how older people survive the harsh winters and have to burn cow dung as fuel. No fuel, no heat When...