EU cares for the old folks who live in remote areas

(KPL) Help Age International in Laos said that the number of old people, 55 years and above, in Laos would form 8.3 per cent of the total Lao population in 2013. But, in 2007 the figure was seven per cent and the rapid increase, added the NGO was mainly due to better nutrition.
Help Age International also said that there was a need to care for the old folks, the majority happen to live in the rural areas and if this was lacking there would be a social problem here. Therefore caring for the old people would be one of the social responsibilities of the Lao society, the NGO stressed.
The Lao based NGO said it received support from the European Union or EU, it was working with the Lao government to monitor the increase in the number of old folks here and it was looking for ways to assist them.
In connection with such efforts, one of the findings of Help Age International, its spokesman said was that those old people who lived in upland areas were facing problems in getting facilities like medical care, food and water supply.
“Caring for the old people in Laos is part of the work of EU and it had approved a grant of Euro 749,977 to Help Age International and it would be used by this NGO to assist this vulnerable group to lead happier lives,” the spokesman told KPL.
Help Age International would concentrate its work in the upland areas of Luang Prabang province as this area had many poverty stricken villages, the spokesman added. “We have a station in Pak Xeng district because it is one of the 47 districts in Laos that had been identified for priority intervention by the government and this in the report of the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES 2003), said the spokesman to the KPL journalist when he was in the field in the Pak Xeng district.
Mr Rob Murdoch, who is the Country Programme Manager of Help Age International in Laos said that he had worked closely with many villagers in the Pan Xeng district, a district that had many old folks, after getting the fund from EU. The KPL reporter found out that the NGO was active in three villages, Had Khaen, Had Yen and Had Keuan.
He said that this fund would be used to give livestock to the old folks livestock, to construct latrines, to build gravity-fed water systems and to give basic health care. Up to date the three villages mentioned above had 69 latrines, a medical post, gravity-fed water systems and livestock banks.
These villages were 24 kilometres from Luang Prabang and located on the riverbank of the Nam Cham . During the rainy season they faced problems such as poor road conditions, lack of supply of general goods as these were transported by motor vehicles and basic health care services. Their economic activities were shifting cultivation, fishing and raising livestock. One hundred old people lived in the three villages.

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