hacemos voluntariado con los viejos / volunteering with the elderly

The BBYO Argentina teens participated in BBYO's J-Serve in April, an annual event where thousands of Jewish teens from across the world volunteer simultaneously. Afterwards they decided they wanted to continue doing service year round. Two of our teens, Juli and Mai, formed a J-Serve committee to plan the different service events throughout the year. Last week the group went to a state of the art Jewish elderly home in Buenos Aires, Ledor Vador, to visit with the residents. Here is more information about the program from Juli and Mai:

Last Thursday we went to the Jewish elderly home Ledor Vador to do a program with a group of elderly. First, we perceived a certain hesitation, the elderly didn't fully understand the intention of the meeting and what we would be able to achieve but don't worry, everyone left the program extremely happy!

The proposal was to make an intergenerational exchange and to discuss some issues of our interest (how young people have fun nowadays and what they did in the past, technology, the safety on the street, the relationship between men and women, education, and all the other topics that arose) and try to teach each other the differences and similarities between our present and their past. As we started talking and getting warmed up, we listened with interest to all the anecdotes and opinions and ended up chatting with nearly forty elderly people. 

In the end, the atmosphere was so nice that we split up into more intimate conversations with some people who showed no hurry to leave and got to know the life of Mario, a lawyer who taught philosophy and called his ex-wife two times while chatting with us, and Cata, a survivor of the Shoah. Both they and we learned with pleasure that the age difference does not have to stop us from being friends. I believe we all left Ledor Vador feeling a little more similar to people that are 80, 90, or 100 years old than we thought we could.

-Juli Cohen, 18

In my opinion going to Ledor Vador was an excellent experience. It was a different activity than usual because it was the first time we did something like this and with these type of people. It was fantastic because everybody said very interesting things, we were all very happy because the topics that we were discussing were very interesting for them and for us!

-Mai Stamati, 17

 Thank you Juli and Mai for such a great program! I can't wait to see what other great service projects you guys plan!