News

The 2012 UNAIDS Report does not mention the ageing of HIV. As a result of the omission of data on those aged 50 and older, the report is inaccurate and misleading. The report’s failure to include aging with HIV tacitly fuels several stigmatizing myths about older adults: that they don’t have sex or engage in other risky behaviours; that HIV only occurs among young people below age 49; and that their challenges in living with and treating HIV, among other health problems, are no different than those of younger adults.

The second meeting of the High-level Panel on the post-2015 development agenda is taking place this week in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. HelpAge is attending and coordinating a roundtable discussion on ageing and disability.

HelpAge International is extremely concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation within Syria as well as for the refugees who have fled the country. We are particularly worried about the many frail and vulnerable older people who are caught up in the crisis.

Older people are some of the nearly one million people displaced by the devastating Typhoon Bopha which destroyed or damaged over 200,000 homes in the Philippines. So far around 500 older people have received cooking and bedding supplies from HelpAge and our local partner, Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE).

HelpAge International and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) are launching an initiative focusing on the protection of older refugees, one of the most vulnerable groups in displacement situations. The project will take place in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State where 110,000 refugees have crossed the border from Sudan during the last year.

At 6:00 AM on January 12, 2013, more than a thousand older people, will march in Manila, to demand more support for older people affected by Typhoon Bopha.

HelpAge is working with our partner Coalition of Services to the Elderly (COSE) to support older people affected by typhoon Bopha, which hit the Philippines at the beginning of December, affecting over 5.5 million people and killing more than 900 people.

Aid agencies are calling for an immediate end to demolitions of water cisterns belonging to Palestinian communities in the West Bank, which have been on steady increase in the past year. The recurring demolitions present a clear breach of International Humanitarian Law and undermine the sustainability of the communities that depend on them for survival.

Experts from the humanitarian organisations Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and HelpAge International say emergency aid has failed to address the needs of older people in emergency situations and are calling on donors and humanitarian agencies to ensure that this vulnerable group is included in any emergency response.

HelpAge International and the United Nations Population Fund have announced the members of the judges’ panel for the first 60over60 awards to find 60 of the world’s most inspiring older people.

This Human Rights Day, we are at a critical turning point regarding older people’s rights. Politics has not kept up with the realities of demographic ageing and it is time to rethink legislation, policies and the societal attitudes to ageing.

HelpAge is extremely concerned about the continuing violence and humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC. Reports of violence, looting and killings continue, including in Mugunga III internally displaced persons (IDP) camp, in North Kivu province, which hosts some 30,000 people.