Tianne Joseph, 93, poses for a portrait at her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 13, 2023. (Anne Myriam Bolivar/Global Press Journal) Summary: The political and economic crises that the country is going through place a vulnerable population in an even more precarious situation.
Reporter Byline: Anne Myriam Bolivar, Global Press Journal Haiti
Photo Caption: Tianne Joseph, 93, poses for a photo at her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 13, 2023.
Photo Credit: Anne Myriam Bolivar, Global Press Journal Haiti
Article
« This article was originally published by Global Press Journal »
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Sitting leaning on a chair in her small house with a bucket full of cigarettes to sell, Tianne Joseph waits for customers from her neighborhood to pass by.
At 93, this mother of four children and grandmother of several grandchildren has no other choice but to continue working.
“I have to run my business because I need money to support myself,” says Joseph, who has been a widow for 35 years.
Since her husband’s death, Joseph has had heavy responsibilities: trying various small businesses and having to rebuild the house she inherited from him after it was destroyed by an earthquake in 2010. Joseph is tired and would like to able to rest, but without social assistance, she must continue to work hard.
“I can’t afford to go to the hospital. What I sell is not even enough to feed me,” she says.
Joseph cannot depend solely on his children because they have obligations to their own family. She lives with one of her daughters who does not have a job. Times are difficult for Joseph, despite friends who sometimes help him. A friend often visits her and sometimes gives her money to go to the hospital. Joseph considers herself rather lucky, however, because she does not suffer from serious health problems. During his last visit to the hospital, he was only advised to eat well.
Joseph is one of thousands of elderly people in Haiti who have no choice but to work until the end due to the lack of social protection such as retirement pensions, worsened by the economic crisis and the lack of a home retirement for the elderly.
Despite the heavy burden carried by this population, there is only one public retirement center in Port-au-Prince, and it is struggling to stay afloat due to the country’s economic challenges. The Asile Communale retirement center is more than a century old and is the responsibility of the Town Hall. It welcomes elderly and disabled people who have no other recourse, providing them with shelter, health services and food.
Gaspard Maccéllus, who has been head of the Communal Asylum department for two years, affirms that the asylum is operating below its capacity.
“We currently have 51 people, although we could accommodate up to 120 elderly people, but our means do not allow us to do so,” says Maccéllus.
In Haiti, people over 65, who represent 4.9% of the country’s population, are among the most vulnerable groups in society, facing various challenges such as poverty and lack of access to care health. The retirement age for civil servants is 58, but those under 25 represent less than 1% of the government workforce, while those over 55 represent almost 20%. This suggests that a considerable proportion of civil servants are working beyond the statutory retirement age. In 2017, more than half of all civil servants were over the age of 45, and 1% were 75 or older.
In Haiti, “retirement is death”
According to a government report dating from 2018, “Civil servants who have already reached the required age do not want to leave because retirement is perceived as an end of life in itself instead of being the start of a new life with less pressure. It does not make us feel the desire for a job accomplished but rather a pain. » The report also states that the pension granted does not allow retirees to maintain the same lifestyle they had when they were active.
Marlène Evelyne Norbert, 76, has been a teacher in a private school in Port-au-Prince for more than 56 years and she continues to work. “We don’t give pensions,” she said. “It’s up to you to decide whether to leave or stay and continue working. »
More than 80% of jobs in Haiti are in the informal economy, meaning the vast majority of Haitians have no pension to fall back on, according to a March 2023 report from the International Organization of Employers.
All this has been aggravated by social, political and economic crises, which have exacerbated poverty. According to the National Coordination for Food Security, the rise in food prices poses a considerable problem for Haitian families. High unemployment rates, corruption and persistent political instability put older people at a disadvantage, making their lives even more difficult. According to the Haitian Institute of Statistics and Informatics, the country has minimal production and relies heavily on imports, with a maximum inflation rate of 46.4%.
Paulena Pierre, 86, lives with relatives in Port-au-Prince. She has no children and feels like her hosts are losing patience with her.
“I understand, they are not my children. Taking care of an elderly person who is not your mother is not easy,” she says.
Pierre runs a small business selling ripe bananas and eggs. It doesn’t work well, but thanks to it she can earn a daily meal.
“I only live at the expense of good Samaritans. It would be better if I found somewhere to live without worries, without having to think about what I can sell to meet my daily obligations,” she says.
Difficulties at the Communal Asylum
The only public retirement home in the capital, the Asile Communale struggles to meet the needs of those housed, even with an occupancy rate of around 40% of its capacity.
“We operate every day. We have the support of Food for the Poor who supplies us with food every 3 months, and also from individuals,” says Maccéllus.
Food for the Poor is an international Christian non-profit organization that has operated in Haiti since 1986.
“It can happen sometimes that we are a little short of funds to feed our residents well, but not a day goes by without us giving them something to eat,” adds Maccéllus.
Deluis Louissaint, 73, has lived at the asylum for more than 18 years and says the missionaries who helped them can no longer do so, despite their best efforts.
For Louissaint, the change in asylum brought about by the worsening of Haiti’s already fragile economic and political situation is painfully obvious. He fondly remembers the time when conditions at the asylum were better. Missionaries and others visited them and brought supplies, but with the current insecurity, no one risks coming to their home. Despite everything, Louissaint is still one of the lucky few to benefit from this type of support.
Maccéllus cites the country’s economic situation as an obstacle to their ability to help more people. “Given the situation in the country today, we are buying 7,500 gourdes [haïtiennes] [environs 55 dollars des États-Unis] of water every week. To cook food we use propane gas which sells for around 450 gourdes. [3 dollars] per gallon. We have 3 gas stoves — 5 thousand water bottles [37 dollars] gives us barely 4 days, depending on the amount of food to cook per day,” he says.
Their struggle to support this area that is difficult to access due to insecurity puts them in a complicated situation. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, violence has intensified. Gangs now control more than 60% of the country’s territory.
“We are not operating at full capacity due to lack of funds. We give food twice a day so that we can finish early, because the asylum is in a fragile zone in terms of insecurity,” says Maccéllus.
The reduced hours are intended to protect the safety of employees who must return home.
Choose to work?
Michel Acacia, sociologist and professor at the State University of Haiti, says the country is in a situation where the informal sector is larger than the formal sector, meaning most workers are without a fixed income. . Most Haitians must continue to work, sometimes into old age, to support themselves because they have few other options.
He says the problem must be solved through macroeconomic structures.
“For people aged 60 to 65 who have worked for the state, continuing to work at this age is often a choice. For those who worked in the informal sector, it is a necessity because they do not benefit from pensions,” he said.
However, pension data contradict this assertion.
Haiti lags behind in providing social protection to its population, with only 5.8% benefiting from some form of social protection. Shockingly, only 0.4% of people over retirement age received a pension in 2020, according to the latest data from the International Labor Organization. In contrast, in the neighboring Dominican Republic, 53.6% of the population benefits from social protection and 11.3% of people over retirement age received a pension in 2020.
Elionor Devallon, Deputy Director of the social assistance fund of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, says that more than 9,000 elderly and vulnerable people receive a subsidy of 2,000 gourdes ($15) per month from the fund. However, thousands of others remain without any recourse.
Lazare Jean François is coordinator of the Rose Ferrier Foundation, an organization that has been helping the elderly in Gressier, a commune in Port-au-Prince, for seven years.
He explains that most elderly people are economically helpless and exposed to diseases, and with the deterioration of the socio-economic situation, they cannot even afford to eat one meal a day.
Jean François says: “We do the best we can with what we have. We give them a packet of food once a month and, if possible, we take them to a doctor. We help the sick as much as possible and, when they die, we pay part of their funeral. For their birthdays or other festive occasions, we organize outings with them. »
He adds: “We are close to them just to help them pass this last stage of their lives with dignity. »
Meager pensions and high proportion of informal workers
Economist Enomy Germain says there is no data on how many older people continue to work to support themselves (because those with formal employment and a pension are rare), but in the public sector , for example, some employees work beyond retirement age.
He explains that this is because “the pension provided by the state is too low,” despite the fact that there is a legal provision for pensions. us and Haiti.
Any Employee or Public Civil Servant in active service, having provided at least 10 years of service and who is absolutely incapable of working, is entitled, regardless of age, to a pension equal to half of his salary without exceeding 12,500. [91 dollars] » specifies the law.
In 2017, the number of permanent civil servants was 81,948, including 23,429 women (28.6%) and 58,519 men (71.4%).
Raphael Théoma Daniel is director and head of communications for the Citizen Protection Office (OPC), the official state body in matters of human rights in Haiti.
He explains how in other countries the state has a separate plan for each age group: from birth to 18, when citizens enter the workforce, and then another for those aged 18 to 65 , when they enter the job market and afterwards when they begin to prepare for retirement.
But such a system does not exist in Haiti, making life more difficult for people as they age.
“The OPC is leading a fight for good governance and against corruption,” says Daniel, “and if we succeed, we are sure that there will be ways for the state to implement this plan” .
Daniel says there aren’t enough nursing homes and most elderly people rely on their families to help them. “The municipal asylums are in poor condition and very poorly structured because the State has forgotten its people,” he says.
Daniel says his organization has made proposals to the government, requiring them to provide social protection to vulnerable people, as it is a human rights issue.
Despite all his difficulties, Joseph hopes to celebrate his 100th birthday in 7 years. “It’s a long shot,” she said, “but I wish God would preserve my life.” »
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