Enjoyable Aging / Starost v radost

"Enjoyable Aging" is a charitable Fund for the disabled and the elderly living in nursing homes. Our goal is to improve life of people who live in homes for the disabled, nursing homes, let them feel that they are not alone, not abandoned, not forgotten and that someone cares for them. We are trying to bring joy into their monotonous routine days, to improve their living conditions to a possible extent, and most importantly - to convey to other people that there is an acute and urgent problem which can not be ignored. We bring sweets, clothes, care products, wheelchairs, linen and blankets - vital, basic items which they lack in the nursing homes. But we also communicate with the lonely elderly people, we visit them and write letters, we finding pen pals for them which become so called "remote grandchildren." Now our business covers more than 120 nursing homes in various regions across Russia. The story of the Fund started in 2006 when Lisa Oleskina, the student of Moscow State University visited some nursing homes for the eldery to gather folk songs and stories. And she was struck by depressing poverty and loneliness she faced. After not finding an organization which would specialize on helping to the elderly, she started herself to organize the visits to the nursing homes. A group of boys and girls soon gathered around her. At first, the activity was confined to bringing sweets, doing concerts and talking to the the people in the nursing homes. Very soon they started to find penpals for the eldery people they visited, so called "pen grandchildren". A lot of people wanted to write letters and join the visits which lead to a rapid expansion of the activity in 2008-2009. "Enjoyable Aging" launched branches in St. Petersburg, Omsk, Sverdlovsk and other distant regions. By 2010, "Enjoyable Aging" took care of fifty nursing homes, where there were about 3,000 lonely elderly people. By that time besides making visits with songs and candies, we started to collect such necessary supplies as diapers, wheelchairs, bed linen, anti-bedsore mattresses, special medical supplies, equipment, all of this is an acute lacking in provincial nursing homes. And then we started thinking about that we should register a charitable foundation, to significantly improve the quality of the elderly lives, to learn the needs and requirements, to provide comprehensive assistance, we needed more than short trips on the weekends. Thus, in November 28, 2011 the volunteer movement "Enjoyable Aging" has become a self-titled charity foundation. Our current projects include: - addressed help to the inhabitants of the nursing homes with special needs. This might be supply of medical equipment, payment for medical treatment, other special needs - volunteer camps on summer during which we do repair work in the nursing homes, visit and help the elderly for 2 weeks - making individual presents, including for the New Year, birthdays, Victory Days. In the last New Year more than 20'000 individual presents have been made. In many cases our present is the only present they receive on the celebration - All-Russia phone hotline for assistance to elderly