How Lebanon’s Worsening Economic Crisis Is Hitting Its Elderly Citizens?

 

A large number of elderly citizens in Lebanon have been thrown into poverty by one of the worst economic crises that the country has seen in the last 150 years.

Being one of the 16 countries with no pension schemes for the private sector workers in cases of disability, old age, or death, Lebanon is facing one of the worst financial crises of all time. The national social security program of the country which provides coverage to about 30 per cent of the workforce, is majorly underfunded and provides the one-time payment at the time of retirement.

This leaves Lebanon as a country with no active national welfare scheme which causes the country’s elderly to fend for themselves, especially during these trying times of the pandemic coupled with the country’s worsening economic catastrophe.

These elderly citizens that have now become the worst-hit victims of the crisis were the ones who in their prime years survived 15 years of the civil war that began in 1975 which brought with itself massive instability. Their old age deserved some respite which this financial crisis promises to withhold.

In the middle east, around ten per cent of the population of around 6 million consists of old people that are above 65 years of age, and all of them are situated in Lebanon. This makes Lebanon the country with the greatest number of elderly people in the middle east.

Of this big number, almost 80% of these people above the age of 65 do not have access to any health care coverage, nor do they receive any retirement benefits, according to the International Labour Organization of the UN. Charities, which are the primary source of support to these elderly citizens, are struggling along with the family members of the elderly, as unemployment is on a rise.

The banks, all of which now stand inaccessible to the citizens because of the crisis, that affects the banking sector as well, contain all of the savings that these elders have deposited through their lives. Due to the devaluation of the local currency against the US dollar, these savings have lost up to 90% of their value. The health care system of the country is collapsing bit by bit, with imported medicines and basic healthcare in jeopardy.

Struggling to Meet Basic Needs

The situation in Lebanon is so much worse than one would imagine. The elderly are literally searching streets and going through the trash and even begging for food. 

A charity, Rafiq el-Darb, or Friends Until the End, provides home-cooked meals to more than 60 elderly families, even before the crisis had struck. More and more charities and well-to-do people should follow suit. Any kind of help by the well-to-do people for the elderly is appreciated. Now is the time for them to give, as those who used to give are the ones now in need.

The Lebanese government also fails to meet the needs of its elderly population, with 55 per cent of them living below the poverty line since the beginning of the crisis in 2019. The very own children of these elderly citizens are now migrating to other countries in search of work, leaving behind their ageing parents, as the Lebanese economy continues to falter.

Lebanon has taken a loan from the World Bank of $246 million to offer cash assistance to around 1,60,000 Lebanese families but the disbursement is yet to be completed. The World Bank claims to have no clue of exactly how many citizens are below the poverty line.

With the rapidly accelerating phenomenon of brain drain and a crumbling health care system, more than 15% of the Lebanese population will comprise people above the age of 65 by 2030 according to UN estimates.

Mustafa Helweh, head of Social Services Medical Association, a nursing home and rehabilitation hospital in Tripoli, North Lebanon, said that if awareness is not spread about how the elderly and disabled people are left behind on their own to fend for themselves, the country can expect nothing but more crises it's the way.

As the dollar became scarce, thousands of foreign domestic health care workers have fled the country who were very crucial for the healthcare of the elderly citizens. They left, leaving the country’s healthcare system completely unreliable.

The nursing homes that provided some support to many of the elderly citizens were considered a high-risk zone at the time of the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Still many families, of the elderly, continue seeing these nursing homes as a solution to try to take care of the elders.

The Social Services Medical Association had halted admission of the elderly at the beginning of the pandemic but has now reopened the facility with 42 patients getting admitted on the first day of its reopening which was an unexpected rush. 

With the currency depreciation that took place this year, a private room in the facility now costs about $100 a month.

Written by - Rishika Taneja
Edited by - Piyush Pandey