Taking care of mental health has been as important as physical during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for our elderly, it’s probably been a lot tougher to do. Thankfully though, a local initiative seeks to address the spectre of loneliness and has even been recognised with the Audience Award from the Malta Social Impact Awards!
Adopt a grandparent!
Missio Malta together with Newsbook.com.mt came up with the plan to pair our senior citizens with caring individuals who can touch base regularly to keep the elderly feel loved and taken care of. In turn, the adoptees would get to enjoy the company and shared stories from an older generation, creating meaningful, long-lasting friendships.
It’s a very simple process; you just need to register and the team behind the initiative will get in touch with you. After being paired with a nannu or nanna, you can exchange phone and video calls, stories from different generations or even pictures or poems you’ve come up with!
This brings a sense of comfort to senior citizens and pairs them with a younger generation who may or may not have grandparents of their own. It’s a fantastic concept and well-deserving of its award victory!
Malta Social Impact Awards
The winner of the main category was Inspire Malta, with Adopt a Grandparent placing second ahead of Thrive. The awards are a yearly event organised by The Gasan Foundation and Inspirasia Foundation. By bringing companies and philanthropists together, they wish to offer opportunities for organisations and individuals to receive financial and non-financial support to develop and materialise projects that will have a positive social impact on Malta.
