This Is How Intergenerational Bonding Inspires Youngsters To Stand By The Elderly

Intergenerational bonding could be a great way for both youngsters and older adults to learn from each other and do something creative and impactful. Find out how. 

A 15-year-old Mumbai student building a platform to keep seniors socially connected.

A 17-year-old helping elders get tech-savvy, starting with his grandmom.

A 23-year-old professional bringing doorstep delivery to elders during the lockdown.

In the time of nuclear families, it’s heartening to see efforts towards building and sustaining a positive relationship between generations that helps to bridge the gap. Intergenerational bonding, in fact, comes with two-way benefits. It gives an opportunity for both youngsters and older adults to learn something new from each other and can have a lasting impact on both. It helps senior citizens engage emotionally and socially with younger people and can extensively improve the quality of their lives. Various studies have shown how intergenerational bonding can act wonders in reducing depression, monotony and loneliness among older adults.

Here are three youngsters and their heart-warming initiatives to support the elderly.

This 15-year-old virtually connects seniors to break their monotony

Anoosha Sehgal, 15, founder of Stay Connected 2020

Meet Anoosha Sehgal, 15, a student of Standard XI from Mumbai, the founder of Stay Connected 2020. What is Stay Connected 2020? It is a platform that offers free live weekly webinars on breathing exercises, immunity-enhancing nutrition, Diabetes management, skincare and more. The platform also conducts interactive entertainment sessions of Antakshari, hair and make-up tutorials. Sehgal partnered with professionals across fields to help her with these sessions to keep seniors socially connected, especially during the self-isolation phase of the pandemic-induced lockdown.

What made Sehgal start this initiative? “The idea to start this initiative came to me after I had a call with my grandparents one day. My maternal grandparents live in a small apartment in New York and the lockdown phase has become very suffocating for them. My nani told me how she was getting extremely bored and anxious sitting behind the locked doors and doing nothing and expressed her willingness to do some drawing and practice yoga. My dadi too is a wonderful singer and wanted to sing with her friends again. That’s how I thought of starting webinars to keep them engaged during the lockdown,” says Sehgal.

The best takeaway for Sehgal has been the immense encouragement that she gets from the senior citizens who participate in her webinars. Sehgal has also started a fundraiser for Project Mumbai to support their effort towards senior citizens like delivering essentials and freshly cooked meals at the doorstep and run a free helpline for their mental wellbeing.

This 17-year-old is committed to making seniors tech-savvy

Aarya Jaipuria, 17, founder of AskHelpie

Every time Aarya Jaipuria, 17, a high school student from Bangalore would visit his grandmother during summer vacations, she would seek help from him on all the nitty-gritty of her smartphone. “She would have things lined up for me as if a mechanic had come home. Helping her with her tasks, as mundane as they may seem, was one the highlights of my trip. However, she would perpetually forget what I had taught her previously. So, I decided to make small video tutorials and sent them to her so she could keep referencing them if she needed help. I then wondered if there were more people like her, who didn’t have someone like me to help them. That’s when the idea of AskHelpie was born,” says Jaipuria.

AskHelpie (askhelpie.com) is a platform that helps senior citizens and other technologically challenged people interact with technology around them. It allows seniors to find how-to videos for everyday tasks, be it sending a picture on WhatsApp or placing an order on Amazon. Seniors can also reach out to him with a specific issue that they are facing with just a click on his website and get it sorted.

For Jaipuria, the best reward happens to be the reaction on the faces of his senior students when they learn something new. “Intergenerational bonding is and always has been something very special. We as teenagers and young adults can learn a lot from seniors. It gives us a different perspective to the world, one that we don’t have. We hear stories from their lives and experiences, and can view the world in a way we would never have before. In return we can teach them things that they may not be too well versed with. Throughout my journey, I have cherished every interaction with senior citizens,” he says.

This 23-year-old jumped in to help seniors with doorstep delivery of essentials during the lockdown

Sai Keshav, 23, tied up with Silver Talkies’ Covid-19 Volunteering Initiative to help seniors during the lockdown

Who says today’s youth is too busy to stand by seniors? When the nation-wide lockdown due to Covid-19 outbreak was announced all of a sudden making it inconvenient for senior citizens to fetch groceries and medicines, Sai Keshav, 23, who works in Bangalore immediately stepped in to help. He tied up with Silver Talkies’ Covid-19 volunteering initiative, did not bother about the Covid scare and readily extended a helping hand to deliver essentials at the doorstep of senior citizens, putting his own life at risk.

“Initially, when the whole lockdown had just commenced, it became very clear that seniors were susceptible to contracting the virus and were in danger. It became the need of the hour for senior citizens to stay home, so all their essentials would have to be delivered to them, especially those living alone. I came up with the idea of doing something to help seniors get their essentials delivered at home. It was my primary and middle school class teacher, Shobha, who put me in touch with Silver Talkies to actually execute the idea. Shobha is an uber-cool person who inspires me in several ways and it is because of her that a small idea of supporting seniors during the tough times materialised,” says Keshav.

Does intergenerational bonding come easy to younger people like Keshav? “Intergenerational bonding is something that is definitely not easy, especially for those who are in their twenties and sixties. But as I got into this, I realised there are a lot of things in common even with that age gap. At the end of the day, we are all humans and we should be kind to one another. Seniors have a lot of great stories to tell and are indeed filled with wisdom, and intergenerational bonding goes a long way for the individuals involved as they reap each other’s benefits – exchange of wisdom and life lessons for creative new-age thoughts,” he says.

It is indeed heartwarming to find youngsters getting inspired by the idea of intergenerational bonding and doing kind and creative tasks to make the world a better place for elders.