credit: HelpAge International
To mark this year’s European Day of Solidarity between Generations on 29 April, we organised an event to draw the attention of EU leaders to the situation of older Ukrainians, and the urgent need to support them in and outside Ukraine.
The discussion brought together Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and technical experts at EU and international level. Associations on the ground raised awareness on older persons’ specific needs, notably in terms of access to health care. Older people remaining in Ukraine face the destruction of medical infrastructures and the lack of medical staff, and older refugees do not know how to access a doctor or medicines. The issue of access to their pensions as their main source of income, was also addressed, as well as the need for special humanitarian assistance to provide material such as food, medicine, care, hygiene products (notably incontinence pads), and assistive devices.
We emphasised the need to mainstream the specific needs of older people and asked participants to use their expertise and decision-making capacity to impact on the policy response to support older Ukrainians and ensure equal protection for all people in vulnerable situations.
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