Shaanxi Rural Elderly Association Ability Construction Of Exploration

By2000, total ageing population above60years old accounted for10.45%of total population, and number of older people above65accounted for6.96%of Chinese population, which indicated that China had become an ageing society. According to6th census in2010, ageing population above60is accounting for13.26%of total population, and the population above65is accounting for8.87%. With impact of rapid migration and decrease of family size, numbers of older people living alone or only with spouse are increasing dramatically which severely challenge traditional form of family support for older people in China. China’s social protection system is still not strong. Older people especially these in rural areas face challenges such as lower income, poor health, improper care and inadequate participation. Village-based older people’s organizations (OPAs) have been widely established to meet needs of growing ageing population. With support from China National Committee on Ageing, Shaanxi Provincial Committee on Ageing and HelpAge International together implement the project named promoting older people’s participation in development in rural China in Shaanxi province with relevant local authorities, in order to explore potential roles of OPAs on addressing needs of older people. To develop capacity of OPAs so that they can well address the needs of older population, the project conducted various training events related to different themes to explore capacity building for OPAs. These training events greatly increased capacity of OPAs. This paper is to present project training activities for OPAs and summarize practical actions on capacity building for rural OPAs.