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AdoptGrandFather.org

10 Reduced inequalities
  • Original Title: AdoptaUnAbuelo - Volunteer program for the elderly to mitigate loneliness
  • Year: 2016
  • Award: WSA European Young Innovators
  • Category: European Young Innovators
  • Producer: Alberto Cabanes
  • Organisation: AdoptaUnAbuelo
  • Country: Spain
  • URL: https://www.adoptaunabuelo.org/

AdoptGrandFather.org is a volunteer platform providing the elderly with company and enabling communication between young volunteers and care-giving institutions. AdoptGrandFather.org is especially targeted to families lacking resources to hire caregivers for elderly family members. Its main goal is to help an elderly person spend time with a volunteer, feeling heard, accompanied and loved during the nine months that the program lasts. AdoptGrandFather.org grew out of an encounter between a twenty-four year-old and a widower without descendants, who adopted the young man as a grandson, making him reflect on the problem of loneliness that the elderly suffer. AdoptGrandFather.org was subsequently created to connect the young and the elderly in a new way, helping them to meet and mutually enrich each other. The elderly person gets affection, while the volunteer learns valuable life lessons and hears vital stories. AdoptGrandFather.org closes the generation gap, offers great social value and inspires active citizens to adopt a grandparent.

 

Jury Evaluation:

“A truly worthy and admirable initiative to close a generation gap, the Jury thought that AdoptGrandFather is what active citizenship is all about. It is a simple volunteering platform which enables communication between young volunteers and caring homes. With a good cause behind (young people to give company to the elderly), it surely has a great social value, as well as a good monetization potential. We’ve all got so excited about the idea that we would like to adopt a grandparent.” – EYA Grand Jury Report