Grandparents' house, where elderly people find company and become useful

They are magical places, where generations meet. And where we see the enormous waste of grandparents in Italy. We don't know how to use them, we fail to see them as a resource rather than a problem. And we only remember them when money and children and grandchildren pass on.

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grandparents' house

GRANDPARENTS' HOUSE –

Have you ever set foot in a Grandparents' houseThey are magical places, where you can clearly understand how old age becomes another life if you are not condemned to solitude, to abandonment, to indifference. If you're not considered a problem, but rather a resource. And if you manage to rebuild a network of relationships, as well as affection, with the new generations.

I sincerely believe that grandparents represent an enormous waste of human capital in our countryWe are all rightly concerned about the demographic curve, an aging society that leaves little room for young people, declining birth rates, and the costs of all this for a welfare system at risk of becoming unsustainable. All true. However, we forget to add a not insignificant detail: Grandparents not only have the full right not to be abandoned, but thanks to their new vitality (I've known grandparents who were already old at my age today...) which they possess, can represent an extraordinary lever for change and rediscovery of the community, whether family or social..

ALSO READ: Luckily there are grandparents, 7 million of them help their children and grandchildren

GRANDPARENTS' HOUSE FORLÌ –

Take the case of the last one Grandparents' house just opened in Italy, in the peripheral district of La Cava di Forlì, thanks to the energetic work of a good and lively parish priest, Don Davide Brighi, the financial support of the Cassa di Risparmio di Forlì Foundation and the usual generosity of the volunteer network. The Grandparents' Home is open from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 17,30pm, and helps the loneliest elderly people to rebuild a family atmosphere.Here the grandparents cook, roll out the dough with the rolling pin, knit, complete the puzzles together, play cards. But they also practice painting, in gymnastics, in group games and even in laughter therapyThey plan trips and excursions.  And who do they do all this with? With the volunteers, of course, but also with the children of the area who in turn benefit from living together in their grandparents' house in terms of company, hobbies, teachings and pure fun.

GRANDPARENTS' HOUSES IN ITALY –

Grandparents' homes should really be multiplied throughout Italy. And we should increasingly use older people in useful work, for example, to support local governments that have limited resources for their services. On the contrary, we should avoid considering grandparents in our families merely a convenient ATM, invaluable in times of great crisis: never forget that in Italy we have 7 million grandparents who finance children and grandchildren. So: long live grandparents, without abandoning them or wasting them!

COME ON GRANDPARENTS, HOW MANY THINGS THEY CAN GIVE US:

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