The project in Flores is a kind of club for elderly people who live in the neighborhood or surroundings who are in a situation of social exclusion. Most of them have been assigned to this project through recommendations from professionals such as doctors or social workers. During the day, organized activities are available, for example, gardening, meditation and workshops, such as social-effective, artistic-creative and computing. In addition, breakfast, lunch and snacks are offered.
The daily presence of people who join the program is constant, which shows genuine interest and willingness to go to the club. For this reason, activities can be carried out in full, and the effect of giving itself a space that creates a place of bond and belonging for the elderly really becomes its obejctive. The elderly people are very grateful for the project that is carried out because they see it as a very beneficial way to stand against loneliness that occurs in their own homes (where they experience basic situations of old age) that greatly interrupt social life, such as widowhood, the loss of work, the drop in energy and desire to carry out activities on their own. We can see a positive attitude on the part of its members, which confirms the positivity of this type of programs and their beneficial effects. It can be observed that a family atmosphere has been generated, because there are stable and warm relationships, friendships are formed and one feels at home, accompanied and valued, and endowing with meaning the last phase of life, where many times it is lost because of social exclusion.
Furthermore, most common festivities like Christmas are celebrated in the Club. Because of this, it is considered a special occasion to modify the established guidelines and have a special dedicated day to the celebration to this event. We as volunteers were able to attend the celebration, an experience that was very positive and rewarding. We felt that it was a fabulous and very pleasant atmosphere, of happiness and union.
The day started by having lunch together and after eating, the Bingo activity was carried out. The professionals animated this activity through music and joking comments and as a result, everyone could notice the happy faces of the participants who were enjoying themselves. Once it was over and they sang a couple of bingo halls, food basket were offered as a prize (which, at the end of the day, was given to each one of the project members), we got together to watch a video that had demonstrated the educator of the elderly themselves dancing and singing some songs that had been created to thank the work team of the center, which was very emotional on the part of the elderly since they saw the results of their own creation gained personal and collective pride, an ideology that still reinforces the unity of the group.
After we finished watching the videos, music was played and the elderly people started dancing. I was suprised by how gracefully some of them could dance! This part was the most beautiful of all for me, since a holiday situation was created in total, in that nothing else matters more than enjoying an event where everyone is united by music and everything else does not matter, ultimately forgetting any kind of problem that they had prior to being there. Everyone danced with everyone, the elderly, the volunteers, the professionals and you could notice that there was no difference or seperation. We were all one through the simple enjoyment of dancing.
At the end of the celebration, sweet bread with nougat was offered, which is a typical Christmas snack. We toasted with glasses of cider to show the happiness of each individual and of all as a whole for the big achievment of the day and project.
From to my experience, I can definitely affirm that this project had a spectacular and extremely positive effect for the well-being of the elderly, taking into consideration all of the aspects that are included at this stage of life. Personally, I believe that this is a program which facilitates the dignity of life and promotes the happiness of its members as well. For the future, I hope that the project will have a long life and continue doing the good work with the same enthusiasm for the participants and the professionals of this orgnization.
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