Young beneficiaries of ICETEX, as volunteers, will provide socio-emotional support via telephone to Elders in vulnerable conditions

 

 

Bogota, May 12th, 2020. With the goal of providing people over 60 years of age with spaces to improve their well-being and quality of life during quarantine, and to establish intergenerational bridges between them and young volunteers, the ¿Generations that Connect¿ (#GeneracionesQueConectan) program was born, which is led by both the Office of the First Lady of the Nation, the Presidential Council for Youth, Colpensiones and ICETEX, and has the support of the Keralty Foundation, Lazos Humanos and the University of Rosario.

 

This Friday, May 8, the First Lady of the Nation, María Juliana Ruíz Sandoval, made the first call of the program. For a few minutes, the First Lady spoke with Blanca Irma Mora, a BEPS user living in Bogotá who became the first older woman to be part of this initiative that reinforces the commitment of the National Government to generate inclusion opportunities for different sectors of the country's population and, in this way, favor the intergenerational exchange of knowledge, as well as guarantee the rights and integral well-being of the most socioeconomically vulnerable people.

 

Like Mrs. Blanca, it is intended that people over 60 years of age are part of this initiative that will initially link young students and professionals from the careers of Social Work, Psychology, Nursing, Gerontology. The activities that will be carried out will be painting tutorials, poetry afternoon, photographic memories, tours of virtual museums, among others.

 

The young people involved are being trained by institutions specialized in caring for the elderly, such as the Keralty Foundation, Lazos Humanos and the Rosario University. For this, virtual sessions are being held with young people in which they seek to eliminate prejudices and develop skills for both active listening and assertive conversation. Likewise, it seeks to position the strategy of Caring Communities, promoting the autonomy, capacities and preferences of the elderly public.

 

During the first stage of the ¿Generations that Connect¿ Program (Generaciones que Conectan, by its name in Spanish), approximately 100 young people from different cities of the country, who have expressed their interest in CONNECTING with the older adults connected to the strategy, will be linked together. The goal of the program is to reach the 32 States of the country, constituting the largest network of young volunteers in the entire national territory with the aim of enhancing the sense of self-worth of the elderly by making use of both digital tools and the creativity of each young person.