HelpAge Kenya carries out the first participatory research with older people, to make sure that their experience is properly understood. This was the basis of our Rapid Needs Assessments, which help identify priority needs for older people caught up in a humanitarian emergency.
Having been involved in humanitarian responses with Help The Aged’s international arm, HelpAge International responds separately to the genocide in Rwanda, supporting refugees crossing the border into Tanzania.
In the UN’s International Year of Older Persons, HelpAge publishes guidelines on how to respond to older people in emergencies.
HelpAge in Asia responds to its first humanitarian emergency with HelpAge India when a major earthquake strikes in Gujarat.
We arrange consultations with older people in 32 countries, which help shape the UN Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, committing governments to include ageing in all social and economic development policies.
Our partner organisations in five countries launch the first older citizens’ monitoring projects, in which groups of older people learn about their entitlement to social pensions and healthcare and lobby the authorities for better access.
The regional team with HelpAge India, HelpAge Sri Lanka and partners in Indonesia launch a major response to support older people and others affected by the Boxing Day tsunami.
The regional team in Asia begin to formalise Older People’s Associations (OPAs), responding to what older people’s interests and needs are. This ‘supermarket’ approach, where older people can pick and choose services fuel the spread of OPAs across the region. There are now more than a million OPAs globally with hundreds of millions of members.
As the first NGO to champion social protection, our advocacy work hits a milestone with the Livingstone Call for Action. The African Union declaration outlines a commitment for social protection for all, including older people. HelpAge plays a leading role in organising the meeting in the Zambian capital, where the declaration is penned and signed by 13 African governments. This declaration strengthened advocacy towards universal pensions and other social protection measures, bringing support to older people in Africa.
HelpAge’s Adopt a Granny, established in 1983 by Help The Aged to provide direct support to older people, is renamed Sponsor-A-Granny to reflect a more community-based approach.
Older people’s organisations in 27 countries take part in Age Demands Action, the first global coordinated campaign in which older people present their issues to governments. The campaign continues to grow, with organisations in 59 countries taking part in 2011.
HelpAge receives the prestigious 2012 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The award is the world’s largest humanitarian prize and is presented each year to an organisation that has delivered extraordinary work to alleviate human suffering.
The launch of our flagship report Ageing in the 21st Century sets out the challenges for older people in an ageing world and offers a resource for network members and partners. HelpAge Pakistan uses it to launch its first campaign to raise awareness of older people in the country. The campaign goes on to secure social protection legislation in four of the five provinces for older people.
We support the establishment of Age International, a charitable subsidiary of Age UK, part of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and a member of the HelpAge global network. HelpAge’s fundraising operations move to Age International.
HelpAge launches its first AgeWatch Index, providing country-by-country analysis of older people’s lives. This helps support national advocacy goals, such as social protection, and reveals areas that had not been considered before, such as the risk of violence towards older women.
Through the Older People’s Associations in the Philippines, we reach hard-to-reach areas hit by Typhoon Haiyan, which ravaged the country and bring support to older people and others affected.
Having successfully made the case that older people are affected by HIV/ Aids, whether as victims or as carers for orphans, HelpAge and other agencies secure major funding. This allows them to continue this work along with their social protection programmes, in countries such as Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa.
HelpAge establishes its programme in Ukraine. Older volunteers mobilised by HelpAge provide care, stability and support in their communities.
The organisation rolls out a global programme and advocacy response to COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how widespread and deeply rooted ageism is in our societies. We saw older people stereotyped as unable to make decisions for themselves, and age limits put on who could access healthcare. HelpAge has continued to advocate for vaccine equity and speak out against the appalling levels of healthcare discrimination brought to light by COVID-19.
HelpAge mounts its largest ever emergency response in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries, reaching over 70,000 people in the year.