In Times of Crises, Lebanon's Old Must Fend for Themselves

Marie Orfali, 76, left, and her husband Raymond, pose for a photograph in their apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Marie Orfali, 76, left, and her husband Raymond, pose for a photograph in their apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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In Times of Crises, Lebanon's Old Must Fend for Themselves

Marie Orfali, 76, left, and her husband Raymond, pose for a photograph in their apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Marie Orfali, 76, left, and her husband Raymond, pose for a photograph in their apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Tiny and bowed by age, Marie Orfali makes the trip five times a week from her Beirut apartment to the local church, a charity and a nearby soup kitchen to fetch a cooked meal for her and her 84-year-old husband, Raymond.

Their only support — Raymond’s $15,000 one-time end-of-service payment from when he retired more than 20 years ago — long ago ran dry.

They have since depended on charity to cover almost everything: rent, cleaning supplies, pain killers and food for their white dog Snoopy. But charity covers less and less as Lebanon’s currency collapses. The cash they get from a benefactor and the church every month, once amounting to $400, is now barely worth $40.

The 76-year-old Marie broke down in tears when asked how she’s doing. “I've become scared, I've become jittery," she said. “I sit and cry and think, I want money. I want to get stuff for the house.”

With virtually no national welfare system, Lebanon’s elderly are left to fend for themselves amid their country’s economic turmoil. In their prime years, they survived 15 years of civil war that started in 1975 and bouts of instability. Now, in their old age, many have been thrown into poverty by one of the world’s worst financial crises in the past 150 years.

Lebanon has the greatest number of elderly in the Middle East — 10% of the population of 6 million is over 65. Around 80% of the population above the age of 65 have no retirement benefits or health care coverage, according to the UN’s International Labor Organization.

Family members and charities, traditionally the prime source of support, are struggling with increasing needs as unemployment rises.

Any dollar savings the elderly had from a lifetime of work are locked up in banks, inaccessible in the banking crisis. The savings lost nearly 90% of their value as the local currency collapsed against the dollar. Imported medicine and basic goods are in jeopardy, and a once reliable health care system is crumbling.

“I don’t have money to buy clothes or shoes,” Marie told The Associated Press, whispering. She didn’t want Raymond to hear her complain. He recently went through a COVID-19 infection and brain surgery and gets agitated, and it’s only worsened by lockdowns and the financial crisis.

Raymond worked for 26 years as an orderly at one of Beirut’s hospitals, and Marie as a custodian at a university.

Over the past two years, more elderly have taken to the streets, searching through trash or begging, said Joe Taoutel, who runs Rafiq el-Darb, or Friends until the End, the charity where Marie gets some of the meals each week.

Taoutel delivers home meals to more than 60 elderly families, up from five before the crisis.

Lebanon is one of only 16 countries in the world with no pension scheme for private sector workers in case of old age, disability and death, according to the ILO. The national social security program covers only 30% of the labor force, mainly giving one-time payments at retirement, and is dangerously underfunded.

As the economy falters, more young Lebanese are migrating, leaving behind aging parents.

The UN estimates that by 2030, those above 65 may make up more than 15% of Lebanon’s population, a trend that could be accelerated with the brain drain and a deteriorating health care system.

“The elderly and those with disabilities are remaining. If society is not aware of this problem, I think we're heading toward more crises,” said Mustafa Helweh, head of Social Services Medical Association, a rehabilitation hospital and nursing home in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.

Thousands of foreign domestic workers — the backbone of the elderly care system — left as dollars became scarce. The overwhelmed health care system is no longer considered reliable.

Back in the Orfalis apartment, Raymond said he can’t afford to hire help. He can barely afford his pain killers.

His equally aging wife is his only caregiver. She changes his diapers and responds to his bell rings in the middle of the night from the room next door.

“She is suffering with me. I don’t want her to suffer,” he said, weeping. “I have nothing. Just God. May He take me back and relieve me."



These are 5 Things the UN Does that You May Not Have Known

The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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These are 5 Things the UN Does that You May Not Have Known

The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

The United Nations' vast system has tackled everything from delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to providing crucial peacekeeping operations in conflict zones since it was established in the wake of World War II.

As the international body closes in on 80 years, questions about its relevancy and efficiency have sharpened from supporters and critics alike. Recent US cuts to foreign assistance and the reevaluation of humanitarian contributions by other countries have forced a reckoning for the UN, said The Associated Press.

The organization has long sought to highlight its unique role as the meeting place of global leaders, with an ambitious mandate to prevent another world war.

Staffers, however, say the UN does more than respond to civilians’ needs in war zones and debate resolutions in the Security Council.

“The things that are not on the radar of anyone, that nobody sees every day, that’s what we do everywhere, in more than 150 countries,” said Diene Keita, executive director for programs at the UN's population agency.

Here are five things the UN does that you may not have known:

Providing training to women and girls who have faced gender-based violence.

UN agencies facilitate programs worldwide focused on women, tied to education, financial literacy, employment opportunities and more. Among the most sensitive services provided are those for victims of gender-based violence.

In Chad, the UN Population Fund operates several rehabilitation programs for women and girls recovering from that trauma. One of them, Halima Yakoy Adam, was taken at age 15 to a Boko Haram training camp in Nigeria, where she and several other girls were forced to become suicide bombers. Adam managed to escape with severe injuries, while the others died in blasts.

Through UN programs on the islands of Lake Chad, Adam received health and reproductive services as well as vocational training. She is now working as a paralegal in her community to assist other women and girls.

“We are not created to stay,” Keita said of UN agencies' long-term presence. “So this is embedded in what we do every single day. We have that humility in knowing that we make a difference, so that people do not need us the next day.”

Resettling refugees in Mexico

Images of refugees at US and European borders show the migration crisis around the world. Often overlooked are the refugees who are resettled in communities outside American and European cities, ones that resemble their home countries and cultural upbringings.

Since 2016, the UN's refugee agency has supported the integration of more than 50,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Mexico. They arrived in southern Mexico and were relocated to industrial cities after being screened and granted asylum by the government.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees provides transportation, orientation and access to health, education and other social services. More than 650 companies have agreed to train and employ these people, whose labor has generated a $15 million annual contribution to the Mexican economy, according to the UN.

According to UN estimates, 94% of these working-age refugees have secured formal employment within their first month in the country and nearly 90% of school-age children have enrolled in school. The UN program also provides what staffers describe as clear pathways to Mexican citizenship.

“Mexico has become a country where people forced to flee can find the stability they need to restart their lives with dignity,” Giovanni Lepri, the top UN refugee agency official in Mexico, said in March. “A strong asylum system and legal framework allows an effective integration of asylum-seekers and refugees.”

Eliminating exploding remnants of war

UN agencies are present throughout various phases of war, from delivering food, water and medical supplies in an active military zone to the iconic “Blue Helmets” — the military personnel deployed to help countries transition out of conflict.

Less attention is paid to efforts made after the dust has settled.

One of those initiatives, the United Nations Mine Action Service, was established in 1997 to facilitate projects aimed at mitigating the threat posed by unexploded munitions in countries years — and sometimes decades — after war.

The UN estimates that on average, one person is killed or injured by land mines and other explosive ordnance every hour.

In January, a 21-year-old man was harvesting olives in a Syrian orchard with two friends when they noticed a visible mine on the ground. Panicked, they tried to leave, but one of them stepped on a land mine and it exploded, amputating one of his legs above the knee.

A month later, in Cambodia, a rocket-propelled grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes.

The UN program aims to work with communities in Syria, Afghanistan and Nigeria to safely locate and remove these remnants of war while providing education and threat assessments.

Since its inception, the UN says more than 55 million land mines have been destroyed and over 30 countries have become mine-free.

Teaching refugee girls self-defense in Kenya

In a refugee camp in northwest Kenya, dozens of girls 12 to 18 have gathered every Saturday at a women's empowerment center to learn self-defense through a Taekwondo class.

The program, launched by the UN's Population Fund last year, has focused on providing an outlet for girls who have either been victims of gender-based violence or are at risk of it after fleeing conflict zones in countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo.

The coaches are locals who understand the cultural and political dynamics their students face while living in a camp that is home to nearly 300,000 refugees.

The goal is to use sports activities to create safe spaces for women and girls to discuss various issues like period poverty, abuse and domestic conflict. The program, which the UN has replicated in Egypt and elsewhere, is funded by the Olympic Refuge Foundation.

Sex education by monks in Bhutan

Topics surrounding sex and reproductive issues were considered taboo for centuries in Buddhist communities. UN staffers have spent the past decade working with religious leaders in Bhutan and other countries in Asia to “desensitize” the topics they believe are crucial to a healthy society.

The campaign has led more than 1,500 nuns from 26 nunneries to hold discussions with community members around sexual and reproductive health and the prevention of gender-based violence.

Now, at least 50 monks are trained to provide counseling services on these topics to students across Bhutan's 20 districts.

The UN says these partnerships, which began in 2014, have contributed to a decrease in maternal mortality, an increase in contraception use, and better reproductive care for pregnant women.