Elderly Face Lonely Challenges

By SOE LWIN

PYAPON, Irrawaddy delta—Tin Mya, 68, had a backyard poultry business. She managed to put away some money and gold. With her savings, she dreamed of having a comfortable life when she could no longer work.

Her dream became a nightmare when her gold and money—valued at the equivalent of US $500—disappeared when Cyclone Nargis pummeled Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008.

A woman walks down a dirt road near Laputta Township in Irrawaddy delta. Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster recorded in Burma's history, slammed into it's delta in May, 2008, killing more then 130,000 people and leaving 2.4 million destitute. (Photo: Reuters)

"I tried to keep my plastic sack of gold and money with me until the flood waters reached to my waist,” Tin Mya recalled. “But when I was hit by a giant wave, the sack was washed away."

Since the storm, Tin Mya has relied on food aid to survive. When the aid stops, she doesn’t know how she will find food. She believes she will never be able to rebuild her backyard business.

The Category 4 storm—the worst natural disaster in Burma’s modern history—killed close to 140,000 people and affected more than 2 million.

Like Tin Mya, there are still thousands of vulnerable elderly people who now face even harder times, 17 months after Cyclone Nargis.

According to HelpAge International, of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, an estimated 200,000 were 55 years or older at the time of the disaster.

Humanitarian aid workers say elderly people face greater challenges in terms of restoring livelihoods, earning incomes and living a healthy life, physically and mentally.

Many have forever lost the assets that they accumulated over their lifetime, and in many cases they have lost loved ones who they relied on for economic and physical support.

According to a HelpAge International report, 14 percent of the elderly said their life was more difficult now than before Nargis, while 21 percent said their life was back to normal.

In Burma, the elderly usually receive high respect within a community, which is a benefit for many old people, the aid agency said.

"Those who had no children particularly have been facing tough times,” said an official from the Myanmar [Burma] Red Cross Society. “The respect of their community is very helpful.”

In Thamainhtaw village in Pyapon Township, a 73-year old man who lost his wife in the cyclone said he does not how he would have survived without his neighbors help.

Three of his neighbors fetch potable water and cook for him, he said. At night, they come and sleep in his shelter.

“Now, food aid has stopped in our village,” he said. “But my neighbors are feeding me.”

According to aid agencies, many elderly without relatives are stranded in their makeshift houses and relying solely on food aid. Many are in need of psychological counseling and suffer from trauma and depression. Some elderly people still refuse to speak, say aid workers.

"The psychological well-being of older people is so much related to the material support given to them," said an official with HelpAge.

In the meanwhile, many elderly carry on, trying to carve out a new way of life.

In Pyapon, a small village, a man in his 80s who lost his wife and one grandson to the cyclone, stays in a shelter built by aid workers.

“At night, I sleep at my home, but during the day I go to the monastery where I can chat with people my age and do religious work,” he said. “If I’m hungry, the monk gives me food.”