Thursday, 23 January

Dear Eduard,

A very Happy New Year to you.

To kick off the year we wanted to share some of Age Demands Action‘sachievements from 2013 — which would not have been possible without YOU and all our hard-working campaigners.

ADA on Health

The 7 April was World Health Day and the day of our ADA on Healthcampaign. More than 32,000 campaigners from 26 countries met senior politicians and presented their demands for better health care for older people.

The theme for the day was high blood pressure and more than 17,000 older people had their blood pressure tested as part of the campaign.

Find out which countries pledged to improve health care for older people.

We also conducted a survey on high blood pressure among organisations working with older people in 42 countries. The results will help identify what needs to be done to provide vital information and screening for this easily treatable condition.

ADA for Rights

ADA for Rights was held on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (15 June). The focus, for the second year running, was our global call for a UN convention on the rights of older people.

Campaigners in 30 countries have been putting pressure on politicians to attend the UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing — a key group that examines the best ways of protecting the human rights of older people.

We were so pleased that governments from 12 countries pledged to support a convention for older people. Now we will keep the pressure on them to keep their promise!

International Day of Older Persons

Our biggest day of action was on 1 October, the UN International Day of Older Persons, when campaigners continued to pressure national governments to address the rights of older people.

And we had some fantastic wins. In Ghana, 1 million older people will get priority health care and in Bangladesh the government is developing a National Policy of Older Persons, which will benefit 12 million older people there.

We collected a record number of signatures for our ADA petition calling for a UN convention. More than 120,000 of you lent your support so thank you so much!

And this year, campaigners had an opportunity to strengthen their arguments by presenting evidence from the new Global AgeWatch Index, which measures the economic and social wellbeing of older women and men globally.

What else did we achieve in other countries?

What’s next?

ADA began in 2007 and has been growing ever since.

As the world population ages more people realise that older people’s rights must be fought for and protected.

Together we can build on the wins of 2013 and strengthen our argument for a UN convention. This year we saw thousands of young people take part in ADA and this intergenerational support will be crucial to our success.

As part of this push for a convention, we will double our work on ADA for Rights. We are going to work with national media and carry out a targeted social media blast to key government officials. Your involvement in this will be crucial. We will have details on how you can take part in the social media campaign, in our March eNewsletter.

Huge thanks again to you, all our supporters, affiliates and partners for all your hard work and support. You are an inspiration!

Barbara Dockalova
Campaigns Coordinator
HelpAge International

Reg charity no. 288180