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PORT-AU-PRINCE (AlertNet) - Madame Emile Desbrosses is living in the awning of a tent she shares with six other women. She is hungry, suffering abdominal pains and insomnia but has had none of her regular painkillers or sleeping pills for weeks. She is 87.
Desbrosses was vulnerable before Jan. 12. Now the earthquake that destroyed much of the Municipal Nursing Home in downtown Port-au-Prince has left her and the 75 residents who survived in an even more precarious position and living in dire conditions.
"My health isn't too good. I can't sleep at night. I used to take medicine to sleep but there isn't any now," said Desbrosses, whose metal bed Â? the same bed she hid under when rubble started to fall from her ceiling Â? is squeezed under the tent's fly sheet.
Nearby, several elderly men sit outside their tents in wheelchairs. One is naked from the waste down. Another man sitting on a bench has a foot wound from nine months ago that is clearly infected and his leg is swollen. Flies buzz around an open sore on a woman's leg.
Despite the risks facing younger women and children in Haiti since the quake left 1.2 million people homeless, the elderly represent the most vulnerable group by far, according to a rapid needs assessment conducted by the United Nations in mid-January.
Older people, however, are in danger of being overlooked by the relief effort, says HelpAge International, which has been trying to improve conditions for Desbrosses and her fellow campers since the 7.0 quake that killed 212,000 people.
"Time and time again in disasters, HelpAge International sees awful situations such as the condition of residents at the Municipal Nursing Home in Port-au-Prince: Those who are most vulnerable are last to receive aid," said Margaret Chilcott, the charityÂ?s emergency programme coordinator.
"Older people Â? especially those who are mentally challenged or frail Â? typically are not the loudest in demanding emergency relief, food or assistance," she added.
NEW NEIGHBOURS
The earthquake completely destroyed the women's ward at the nursing home and rendered the men's ward unfit for habitation. All that is left of the chapel are the pews and parts of the altar - the walls have gone.
Four women were killed in the quake, including the lady in the next bed to Desbrosses who was crushed by falling rubble. Two men and one woman died shortly after. Residents were left without food, shelter or medical attention for three days, many with full diapers. One woman had a gangrenous leg that required amputation.
There have been only sporadic visits by medical teams since.
With the nursing home and its walls in ruins, some 2,700 newly homeless people from a nearby poor neighbourhood moved on to the land. Multi-coloured tarpaulins and tents now cram the entrance to the home, making it difficult for relief agencies to deliver to the elderly without causing a scrum.
The home's toilets also collapsed so the residents now wash in the open in full view of their new neighbours, who gather to watch the spectacle, according to staff. Residents urinate and defecate in buckets that are emptied in an unspecified place "far away", staff said, without specifying.
The new neighbours compromise the old people's security as well as their dignity.
"They stole my sheet and pillow, I have nothing to cover me at night," said Reynold Jean, sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a long yellow T-shirt that just about covered him, but no trousers. Jean said he did not know his age but was born in the 1930s or 40s.
The residents said they had not eaten all day and all complained of hunger. They are being fed but not regularly, according to HelpAge.
SLOW PROGRESS
Nor have they received their prescribed medication since the quake or soon after. Conditions going untreated include hypertension, diabetes, pain relief, constipation, diarrhoea, and insomnia, as well as some infected wounds. HelpAge said it expected malaria and respiratory problems to come as the rains set in.
In a recent downpour, the area around the tents flooded, leaving pools of mud. More rains are on the way, with the rainy season officially due to start in late March-early April.
HelpAge plans to relocate the tents on slightly higher ground, on the concrete where the women's ward once stood, to at least keep the elderly out of the mud. The charity is putting up a large tarpaulin that will cover all the tents.
Progress is beginning to be made in other areas to improve living conditions for the elderly.
Project Concern International, an NGO that is providing relief to the displaced camping on the nursing home's grounds, will work with HelpAge to separate the elderly from the other campers, ensure there are adequate latrines for both groups and carry out a thorough needs assessment for both parties.
But in the meantime, the nursing home residents have to endure things as they are, and many are grateful for the little they have, especially the new canvas homes, donated by Brazilian relief agency Viva Rio.
"We have to love it, we have no choice," said Desbrosses with a smile.
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Copyright Katherine Baldwin/AlertNet
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