The ‘Bridging the gap’ program, conducted last fall under the aegis of the Ivanaj Foundation Institute in Tirana, started as a pilot idea outlined by one of our volunteers, Ms. Skerdjana Muço. It expanded by involving other volunteers from our hub, thus creating a compact group of kind-hearted individuals eager to put themselves into action for a good cause.

The purpose of the project was to build stronger relationships between older adults and youth (kids) and create possibilities for community members to improve their well-being, expand their health-related knowledge, promote personal and family health, as well as improve social behaviors including good manners.

The methodology used was cooperative learning, a simple concept that meant for kids and/or seniors to work in groups together and, thus, the approach and the impact on the learning process resulted to be more effective.

Despite the ongoing difficult times, regular on-site visits to the social center of ‘Gonxhe Bojaxhi’ in Tirana were regularly done once a week, from November until the end of 2021.

The results were exceptional: the volunteers were able educate the kids and the elderly in topics such as personal hygiene, healthy eating habits, good manners, basic social etiquette, healthy living, and more specific medical advice.

All involved volunteers shared similar education backgrounds, which included one medical student, one undergraduate nursing student, a volunteer with a psychology degree as well as another young aspiring medical student. These volunteers provided a more competent and qualified expertise to the educational sessions, without lacking to include recreational activities.

Due to the inspiring educational outcome of this program, we are planning to continue further and expand its timeframe by carrying it onward throughout this new year and focusing more on the seniors and the elderly. This is going to be a sequel of our original concept of the Seniors Technology Club (STC), that due to the emergency pandemic situation, was paused from continuing its third edition.

More about the STC program, can be found in our project section here.

If you want to apply and become part of our volunteer team and participate in this program and other similar initiatives, fill up the online form here.

Donations are always welcome as well since this is a fully self-funded and voluntary program and we are always seeking contributions to pursue our work in goodwill and transparency.

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