Vahida Huzejrovic: Helping the aged

Vahida Huzejrovic, born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is Slovenian. She currently works as regional network coordinator from Slovenia for Help the Aged UK, with a focus on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.  

In 1996 she began to work with issues regarding older people, first as a volunteer with elderly refugees in Slovenia and later within projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia with local NGO, Osmijeh in Gracanica, BiH. Between 2005 and 2007 she worked as regional programme officer for South East Europe, for Help Age International and since 2007 has been working as regional network coordinator with Help the Aged (UK).

What are the main complaints of elderly people in Eastern Europe?

Poverty is their greatest challenge –  in Serbia nearly 400 thousand older people have no pension. The elderly (over 65) make up 17.4% of the population but 100 thousand have no income at all.  They complain about access to health care. In Bosnia and Herzegovina those with below minimum income or without income cannot arrange and afford health insurance. Many older people live in rural areas and access to health clinics is very difficult and medicines are expensive.

They also complain of the difficulties caused by changes arising from political trauma, economic and social transition, conflict and forced migration. Many older people have lost the social security they enjoyed under previous state systems. They feel disillusioned, neglected and  discriminated against. They feel discrimninated when it comes to policy creation and development. Their voices are often ignored.

Lonliness, social exclusion, no access to infomration are other complaints common to older people in the region.  Every third older person  in BiH feels socially exluded and poor, according to the UNDP Human Development Report, 2007.

Older people tend to be treated as if they were a homogenous group – often seen as ill, disabled and as a burden to society. Differences in needs, capacities, gender are totally neglected. There is no recognition of their contribution and no proper planning to use capacities older people have.

The non-existence of centralised data on older people is a problem too, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In what way does your work help elderly people face these challenges?

Help the Aged supports civil society organisations working in the three countries  to ensure that these countries’ governments take older people’s voices into account. In the three countries, organisations work nationally to try to improve the quality of life of older people.

Besides the many activities that different organisations within the three networks implement – such as home care, running paliative care centres, day centres, raising awarness on the issue of violence against older people, advocating the introduction of a social pension, self-help grooups, peer assistance – the organisations train active older volunteers to visit more isolated older people in their communities. Civil society organisations (CSOs)  together with elderly volunteers gather evidence to present to government officials, promote volunteering amongst older people; and contribute to the increased visibility of older people in their communities as well as at a national level.

How important is the international day for elderly people and does it have any real impact on the lives of elderly people?

In my opinion older people did not identify enough with this day in the past. CSOs helped to raise awareness about issues surrounding elderly people and enabled their voices to be heard and I think this has resulted in a shift in the importance of this day over the course of the past three years, which matches the shift in the focus of CSO work. In particular, the last three years have seen CSOs move from mainly implementing service delivery projects (which was understandable at that time) to advocacy. Now they use October 1st to speak up on behalf of or with older people, they empower older people to speak up for themselves and put pressure on governments to make changes.

Why did you choose to work for this cause? What particular achievements are you most proud of?

Because it is needy. The elderly represent one of the region’s most vulnerable groups and considering the current demographic changes it is important that governmnet policies address their needs. There are not many organisations working with the elderly and funding is scarse, probably due to the fact that governments and international development agencies do not recognise older people as vulnerable and do not allocate proper funding.

What do you hope for your own old age?

I am 37 and I hope that once I reach old age I will be able to live a decent life – enjoy social and economic security and have affordable health care. I also hope that will not be looked at as someone who is written off, and that I will be able to continue to be active, be among people, be socially included, have access to information and be able to learn as well!   The world is changing, technology is improving and given that sometimes it is hard even for younger generations to keep up I hope to have the opportunity to learn, to upgrade my knowledge, skills and to live an independent life! 

What are your favourite initiatives/projects that involve the elderly?

I like the self help programmes and volunteering the most. Such programmes have been running in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia,  and in Serbia and Albania. They are excellent examples of how older people can be active, useful, contribute to their communities and societies and that all they need is opportunities and infrastructure. These programmes empower older people to speak up about their own issues and to request actions from the decision makers.  In Bosnia and Herzegvina alone there are up to 1 thousand active elderly volunteers every year who reach out to an even greater number of peers. Through such ativities older people contribute to improving their visibility and visibility of their needs, but at the same time imrpove the image of older people – they prove that they can contribute and make changes.