This website is a living document of our worldwide research into the lives of elderly. In October 2017 there was an International Festival on Elderly in The Netherlands, accompanied by the publication of our book and documentary.
I was drawn to this specific post because I was fascinated with the relationship between finances, care and religion. This post also made me think about self-sufficiency. What are the possibilities elderly have? Can they make a choice where to live and how to provide for themselves? What are the implications of choices, or lack […]
We are facing a worldwide demographic shift that has never occurred before. Slowly but surely a substantial part of the global population is growing older than 55. Expectations are that this will grow to 35% of the world’s population. That will change everything. It will change our visual culture, sound culture, the economy, healthcare, ways […]
In our continued search for humans unbound by age, we find ourselves visiting Tiny who resides in a Dutch retirement home in the South East of Amsterdam. She introduces us to her friend and partner in crime, Henriëtte van Dongen, the founder of ‘Het huisje van Toen’. This can best be described as a room […]
The way The Netherlands has arranged their healthcare arrangements have changed a lot the last two decades. The many baby boomers gradually getting their pensions and often becoming less able with the rising of their age, is one if reasons – next to some culturally motivated reasons – that it was said – that the […]
We visited villages in the Battambang province, guided by Helpage Cambodia. There we met Buo Phan (91), living there with her children and grandchildren. She is sick, without income and feels she is waiting to die.
This is Nkek Chanrun. She lives with her daughter, husband and three grandchildren. They own a small shop that sells food and drinks. Her husband past away 10 years ago, when he was 90 years old. She was born in Phnom Penh, and went to school here where she learned French. Nkek has seven children, four live […]
This man lives in a house in a Pagode, together with his son and 2 other men. His wife and 2 other children live in the province (pum tjaam, eskrit). He spends his days praying, and eating, nothing much. Later Akeng tells me that they moved to the Pagode 20 years ago, because his […]
Elderly in the rural area in Cambodia have given a new shape to reciprocity during the last decade. In the rural area, where people live from farming mostly, and are still living in an extended family environment, there has been a population change. Many adult children move to a city or neighboring countries for work […]
Dear Sina. She is 43 years old, lost her husband 15 years ago and looks, as many Cambodian people, much younger, girlish even. In our talks she mentiones her own fear of getting old, and her worries what to do then. Care from her son? She prefers not. Remarry? She is too old for that. […]
Mrs. Vanny lives in Phnom Penh to make some money to send to her province, her sister, who is blind, still lives there . She rides her bike and sells cookies in the center, by that she earns 2 – 5 dollars a day.