Support for senior citizens in Ukraine
Since 2014, the German organisation HelpAge has been supporting older people in Ukraine, as they need particular help in extreme emergency situations.
Supporting older people in emergency situations – that is the aim of HelpAge, a German organisation that is active in Ukraine, among other places. “Via our partner organisations, we have already been providing humanitarian assistance in Ukraine since 2014. The war has made our work more important than ever,” says Sonja Birnbaum, director of the organisation that was established in 2005 and is based in the north German city of Osnabrück. Many older people are unable or unwilling to flee. “They remain behind and are forgotten.”
Standing up for the rights of older people
The German organisation is part of the international HelpAge network. With more than 170 partners in around 90 of the world’s countries, it stands up for the rights of older people. According to HelpAge, roughly 8.9 million people aged over 60 live in Ukraine – a quarter of the entire population. A survey conducted by HelpAge also showed that 44 percent of the over-70s live on their own.
Safe spaces for senior citizens
Since February 2022, HelpAge has been making domestic care services available to older people with physical handicaps, providing walking sticks, wheelchairs and glasses and arranging cash transfers to cover individual costs, such as for medicines. “That is really important. The people themselves know best what they need,” says Birnbaum. Food parcels, hygiene kits and winter supplies are distributed and “safe spaces” set up for older people in which they are protected from violence and can take advantage of psychological counselling.
The project, which will initially continue until 2024, is being funded by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. “The Foreign Office quickly recognised the issues when the war started, addressed us specifically and provided us with considerable support with implementation,” says Birnbaum. Help is made available for example in Dnipro, in the Donbas and in Kharkiv, “the places where those affected are,” Birnbaum explains. Rather than deploying its own personnel, HelpAge Germany implements projects in Ukraine in cooperation with local partner organisations that are supported by older volunteers. Like 66-year-old Viktor, for example. He is a volunteer helper at a shelter for internally displaced persons and says: “For me, helping as a volunteer is like breathing. I am the first to arrive at the shelter in the morning and the last to leave in the evening. I am here to work.”
What Germany does to help – find out more here.
