A retirement home opens its doors to children from an orphanage and the social experiment is an undeniable success!
Orphanages and retirement homes for the elderly, at first glance, may seem like two structures that host totally different people.
Indeed, children and the elderly with many years of difference do not seem to be able to live together under the same roof.
But this was not so, however, at Nightingale House, a Welsh retirement home for the elderly in which it was decided to carry out a special social experiment, originating in Canada, which has borne fruit.
The activities in this hospice in Wrexham, in northern Wales, are a happy mix of childhood and maturity. For several hours each day, orphaned children and elderly people spend their time together helping each other.
Yes, this is exactly what happens! The help is mutual, as both the orphans and the elderly are united by the fact of being alone. Furthermore, by mixing and uniting the two generations, the children can learn from the older ones, while the latter can live happier days thanks to the vitality with which the children surround them.
The administrators of the structure and the promoters of the experiment had noticed how the elderly were "lackluster", without joy, unattentive, and in general, quite sad, before the arrival of the children.
The activities they perform together are many, that are both educational for the little ones and stimulating for the older ones.
For them, the presence of children is a real "recharge" of positive energy and happiness, and they can become grandmothers and grandparents even if biologically, they are not.
The Nightingale House is not the first structure where the daily life experiences have been utilized as activities and opportunities for mutual help between younger and much older generations.
Especially in Canada, social programs of this type, organized between orphanages and retirement homes have become more and more frequent, as well as in the United States.
In Seattle, for example, since 1991, in the Providence Mount St. Vincent assisted living facility, the elderly are visited by groups of children who also come from local daycare and pre-school centers, with amazing results. The structure, therefore, has become a true model of integration between different generations.
All that remains is to wish for the ever-widening spread and utilization of programs like this, which can help to alleviate the loneliness of so many people, irrespective of their age!
