C4C’s Hand in Hand initiative, launched in 2017, is developing delicately and on track:
The intergenerational meetings within the framework of the Hand in Hand initiative, have continued to grow successfully in 2019. The aim of the initiative is to bring together elderly residents of assisted care facilities with children from orphanages to explore synergies, as both groups have much to give and share with one another.
The monthly meeting of a group of girls with grandmothers in the Žatec home is now an ongoing concern. We came up with all kinds of pleasant yet challenging activities. Perhaps the greatest success was the arranging of flowers into bowls, which made grandmothers happy, as, in turn, they decorated their rooms with them.
Our mentors Monika Kavanová and Markéta Franke made a huge effort to ensure that meetings continue and that they have attractive content and activities for all participants.
The Children´s home and Senior home in Unhošť started cooperation under the mentorship of Petra Erguvanli in 2018, and these meetings also developed successfully. The local grandmothers are very gifted and have even been involved in making toys for sick children, which have been distributed to hospitalized kids by our clowns of the Dr. Clown program.
Another “pairing” of the elderly and orphans emerged in 2019, lead by the energetic Michaela Kubicová, who joined our team last year. She connected the Children’s Home in Klánovice and the Senior Home in Úvaly. In this case, we had to deal with the fact that homes are not in the immediate vicinity, as it is elsewhere, therefor it was necessary to provide transport for children. Still both groups enjoy their meetings and Michaela will continue to manage them.
The coordinator of the whole initiative, Zuzana Šrámková, is already mapping other two homes near Prague and we are searching for a supervisor, who would coordinate meetings of children and seniors.
We received a beautiful feedback from Mgr. Jiří Beránek, the director of Children´s home in Unhošť, for which we are very grateful:
“Hello, I would like to thank you very much, because you managed to do unbelievable things, things we would not even believe to be possible. From our side, I would like to highlight our cooperation with the senior home, which I would very much like to continue with. The merging of generations is amazing! I am looking forward to other projects and hopefully, we will continue to cooperate so brilliantly in the future too!”
Author: Chance 4 Children
