Older persons in times of disasters
Older people group is one of the most vulnerable sectors. More than 46 percent of people aged 60 years and over have disabilities, and more than 250 million older people experience moderate to severe disability. They have specific needs, especially in emergencies, which need to be addressed and provided.
Despite these facts, older people’s frequent exposure to and experiences in disasters make them credible resources of knowledge and ideas. Their contributions can help in the preparedness and recovery of their communities in emergencies or disasters.
We at COSE recognize both vulnerabilities, capabilities and contributions of older people sector in disaster risk reduction and management, and emergencies.
Our experiences in DRR and emergencies
Our organization is well positioned and experienced in responding immediately to emergency situations and had done so in 2009 to 2013.
We implement an inclusive community-based Disaster Risk Reduction program that involves all sectors, particularly the older people, from planning to implementationof DRR activities.
We also engage our network of Older People Organizations (OPOs) in carrying out rapid assessments and distributing relief items to the most affected older persons in the interventions.
Some of our key responses that occurred over the past five years were: Ondoy (Ketsana), Pepeng (Parma) and Sani (Mirinae) in 2009, Juan (Megi) in 2010, Pedring (Nesat) in 2011, Pablo (Bopha) in 2012, and Yolanda (Haiyan) from November 2013 to April 2016.
HelpAge-COSE Typhoon Yolanda Programme: a special response
The destruction of Yolanda (Haiyan) in Visayas had led to creation of a joint response program between COSE – a local NGO and HelpAge International – a global NGO that both works to raise and respond to concerns and issues of older people. This program is considered a special kind because of its system wherein an international organization had tapped a local non-government organization, and combined and maximized their resources.
Our joint response focused on 11 municipalities and supported 110 OPOs through activities such as:
Several innovative programs have been introduced to older people and their communities like:
Sharing expertise in older people-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DRR)
COSE is also part of the technical working group (TWG) led by Handicap International in developing a supplementary training manual. The publication dubbed as LahatHanda: BIG supplementary handbook on inclusion (LH, literally translates “everybody prepared”) is a complementary manual to the existing OCD-NDRRMC’s Basic Instructor’s Guide (BIG), which will tackle the specific issues and topics on disability as well as of children and older person.