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Help the Aged and HelpAge International are two UK based organizations who work together to improve the lives of disadvantaged older people around the world.
According to a recent article, they have again joined forces to alleviate the plight of older people caught up in the post-election violence in Kenya.
In Kenya, as in many emergency situations, older people are among the most vulnerable. Both agencies are assisting by distributing food and working with other relief agencies and government to recognize and address the needs of older people, during this emergency and in the future.
The world is a richer place because of organizations like Help the Aged and HelpAge International. They can use your help so use these links to send donations that will help them address the needs of disadvantaged older people around the world.
Is Blue the New Green??
Everyone is ‘going green’, including IAHSA. We’re making our conferences ‘greener’, implementing practices that will cut down on waste and environmental impact. And we’re already are pretty proud of being ‘virtual’, which means we use minimal printing and do few mailings. The Internet is IAHSA’s Yellow Brick Road.
Now, according to advertising giant J. Walter Thompson’s “10 Trends for 2008” report, blue will take over from green as the symbol of environmental conscience. Why? Because blue more accurately reflects climate change and climate is all about sky and sea – both blue. And to consumers, blue also is reflective of spiritual fulfillment and good-citizen ethics.
Other observations in the JWT report include:
- Consumption in the future will be more cooperative. Extending the “time-share” model for owning a vacation home, consumers will increasingly accept fractional ownership of art work, cars, and other high-end products.
- As the genetic links are identified for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure, look for commercial genetic testing services promoted alongside pharmaceutical ads.
- Consumers are rethinking “instant gratification” and choosing to hold off buying mass merchandise in favor of custom made or one-of-a-kind products and services.
- Demographic “pigeonholing” will become less useful to marketers, as consumers change their behaviors–such as when they marry or attend school and for how long–in less predictable ways. Marketers and others will focus on behavioral segmentation rather than age when targeting their campaigns.
So many colors! Actually I really have no preference for either blue or green – what I do care about is doing whatever it takes to get the public to be more aware of their impact on the environment and to get them to do something about it.
Happy Holidays and a Healthy and Safe New Year from IAHSA. We appreciate your support and look forward to 2008.
Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE, the UK’s Voice for Volunteers, understands volunteers as a powerful social movement and the impact they can have in ageing services as well as in society in general. She herself is a Liberal Democrat, social reformer, ordained rabbi and a member of the House of Lords; she was recently appointed by PM Gordon Brown as the UK’s Volunteer Champion.
I had the honor of meeting Lady Neuberger at the Annual Dinner of the National Care Forum in London last week. She is a dynamic spokesperson and exudes energy and enthusiasm for her role as Volunteer Champion. As such she hopes to help develop a much more actively involved society.
As she noted in an interview with the Guardian, ‘Volunteers are not there to take away people’s jobs. This is about additionality. Professionals hate hearing this, but volunteers can do things professionals can’t.” She believes that volunteers can enhance the life of the elderly by adding another kind of human touch and contact. And volunteers have an important role in linking the community to the resident and the staff that is difficult to maintain otherwise.
Lady Neuberger’s next book Not Dead Yet: Manifesto for Old Agewill be published in 2008. I can’t wait.
Last week, we blogged about the challenges facing African health care programs because they can’t find adequate medical workers.
There is also a grave shortage of basic medical equipment and supplies.
That’s where Doc to Dock comes in. Doc to Dock, the brainchild of Dr. Bruce Charash, was founded to connect the tremendous surplus of medical equipment and supplies in one part of the world to the great need in another by engaging physicians, nurses and volunteers in a collaborative effort to collect, sort, ship and distribute unused medical supplies to hospitals and patients that need them most.
Every day thousands of patients in the developing world are turned away from hospitals and medical centers due to a lack of basic medical equipment and supplies.
Shortage of medical supplies is compounding the region’s health crisis and is a recognized problem. “Morale is low all over the developing world, where doctors and nurses have the knowledge to save lives but lack the tools. Where AIDS and drug-resistant TB now burn through populations like forest fires, health-care workers say that the absence of medicines and other supplies leaves them feeling more like hospice and mortuary workers than healers.”
— Foreign Affairs, January/February, 2007
Doc to Dock is dedicated to improving the health and lives of people in Africa by providing healthcare workers with the tools they need.
It is estimated that in the United States thousands of tons of medical supplies are discarded every day due to overproduction, procedural excess and regulatory requirements. This surplus of medical materials is either incinerated of deposited in landfills, both of which are harmful to the environment.
Doc to Dock strives to reverse this cycle of waste by collecting the unused medical supplies from New York hospitals and shipping them to hospitals and clinics in need in Africa.
The first shipment was made in May 2007 when Doc to Dock delivered a 40-foot container of medical supplies and equipment to the Hubert Maga Hospital in Cotonou, Benin.
Hurrah for Doc to Dock! Visit the Doc to Dock website to learn how you can help.
Attention faithful Blog readers. IAHSA will be taking time off this week to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
This is a traditional North American holiday give thanks at the conclusion of the harvest season. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.
Thanksgiving meals are traditionally family events where certain kinds of food are served. First and foremost, turkey is the featured item in most Thanksgiving feasts (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes facetiously referred to as “Turkey Day”). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, turnips, and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner.
In keeping with the holiday theme of giving thanks, during the socializing or meal, people talk about what they are thankful for or tell about experiences during the past year which have caused them to feel grateful. And we all eat too much.
And IAHSA staff gives thanks to all of you for your support and commitment to IAHSA. We’ll be back on Monday the 26th of November.
Last night I went to a Bruce Springsteen [aka The Boss] concert
As I looked around the 40,000 people in the audience I was struck by the wide age range – sitting next to me were three guys in their 20s, directly in front of me was a silver haired gentleman, and middle aged women were everywhere. And at 58, Springsteen certainly can’t call himself young any more — at least not chronologically.
So why am I writing about this on the Global Ageing Blog? Because this concert demonstrates that music and entertainment can be one type of glue that brings generations together, melts the age barriers and keeps people communicating.
Like the Australian Council on Ageing did last month during the 2007 Every Generation Celebration, an intergenerational Festival and a public acknowledgment of the contribution that seniors make to our society. It was a time for older people to share their achievements with people of all ages.
Let’s hear it for rock stars of all ages.
Those of you who were with us in Malta will remember The Zimmers – the UK senior rock band whose hit tune “My Generation” has gained world wide fame as an example of the power and resourcefulness of the elderly. The song, primarily distributed through YouTube, has reached millions of listeners around the world.
On Tuesday evening I had the honor of meeting one of the Zimmers, Peter Oakley, who along with Neil Reed, the Zimmers Music Producer, were honored guests at the Washington DC Celebration of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons [IDOP].
The event, co-hosted by IAHSA, AARP International and the BBC, featured the US Premier of the BBC Documentary ‘Power to the People: The Great Granny Chart Invasion”. In the film we met 40 OAPs [in UK old age pensioners] with vim and vigor. The combined age of the band members is more then 3000 years.
The Zimmers was the brainchild of BBC Producer Tim Samuels and grew out of his experiences with a wide variety of elderly pensioners who felt abandoned and lonely. As he stated in an earlier BBC article, “How do you highlight the plight of Britain’s millions of pensioners, many of whom are bored and lonely? Put them into a rock band and let their charisma speak for itself.”
Peter Oakley, aka geriatric1927 on YouTube, said that being part of the Zimmers has changed his life forever. And the Zimmers have certainly enhanced ours. Thanks, Peter.
Read More about The Zimmers
Being of the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation, everyone my age is talking about retirement. Some of my friends have fully retired and constantly tell me, “I’m busier now then I’ve ever been”; “I don’t have time for everything I want to do”, etc.
Some of my friends are working part time – two or three days a week, balancing work and play.
However most of my friends still work full time. And, like me, they find their work very enjoyable and satisfying. But the ‘R’ word still lurks in the back of my mind so I decided to look around to see what retirement looks like around the world. AARP has done a bunch of studies on retirement in the US. But what is it like in other parts of the world?
One study I found was done by the HSBC Ageing & Retirement Program at Oxford Institute on Ageing. This is their 3rd Annual Study on the Future of Retirement and contains results collected from surveys of 21,000 people aged 40 – 79 in 21 mature and transitional countries and territories. Each of the previous studies have focused on a particular aspect of retirement, with this one looking at the impact of older people on societies.
The significance of the study is reflected in the introductory comments by Professor Sarah Harper, Director of the Institute: “While a few, mainly Western, national surveys have started to indicate changes in the way older people are beginning to work and relate to their families, this is the first time that we have been able to test so many of these new developments in countries across the world. We see evidence that many of the trends in retirement behaviour, health and well being, which were once thought to occur only in affluent Western societies, are also emerging in parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa.”
Now that I’ve read this study, perhaps I am better prepared to wrestle with the ‘R’ word. I’ll let you know.
