December is the perfect month for generous gifts. We presented 75 tablets to elderly people.
Santa Claus was extremely generous last year: he arranged for no less than 75 electronic tablets to be given to recipients of our choice. On 20 December we organized a Christmas event at one of the homes for the elderly run by Saffier, our highly valued partner in The Hague. Appropriately wrapped for the festive season, the tablets were presented to 75 Saffier clients, many of whom struggle with health issues and social isolation.
After the initial introduction of Joining Forces, a project we have been running for several years, our partner Compaan demonstrated how the specially prepared tablets should be used and how easy they make video chats and exchanging pictures with family and friends. The demonstration was so convincing that in addition to the people selected for the tablets, another 20 requested to be put on the waiting list.
Joining Forces matches isolated seniors and refugees. On this occasion, a cultural touch was added by a choir of Ukrainian women, who sang traditional Ukrainian songs and Christmas carols. This first meeting of the women – all members of the Ukrainian Women Refugees Association (UWRA) – and Saffier’s clients worked so well that the language barrier hardly seemed to matter.
This document is an output from a project funded by the Internet Society Foundation, in partnership with TechSoup.
For further information, please contact Julie.barikmo@unitedway.nl.
