L´expertise des adultes

«Casa de Santa Ana », une « crèche » pour retraités, fondée par Maria de Lourdes Braz, est un grand recours pour les jeunes qui grandissent à la favela Cida de Deus [Ville de Dieu]. La clé du succès : cette maison rassemble des centaines de retraités qui passent leur temps à être non seulement des tuteurs intergénérationnels et à sociabiliser mais encore à participer à des groupes d´appui, recevant de l´aide médicale et dégustant de bons repas.  Le plus important, en fin de journée ils rentrent chez eux pour rejoindre  leurs familles tout en  renforçant leurs liens.

(English version)

Want to learn chess? How to play samba music on the drums? Some smooth Latin dance moves? Ideally, you go to the experts – people who have been doing these things for years and years. Maria de Lourdes Braz knew the senior citizens at her Casa de Santa Ana were a tremendous resource for the youth growing up in the surrounding favela known as the City of God in Rio.

Today, Casa de Santa Ana is bustling with intergenerational activity, all while serving its original purpose – to tend to the needs of the aging residents of the City of God. A social worker by training, Braz had seen first-hand the mistreatment of senior citizens at state-run institutions in Brazil. She also knew family members in the impoverished favelas were struggling to care for their aging relatives while holding down a job and tending to other responsibilities.

Caring for an elderly family member is as significant a challenge for working families as caring for small children, but there tends to be a much greater political will and societal financial commitment to childcare. So Braz had a revolutionary thought: Why not “day care” for senior citizens?

That simple, novel way of framing the solution was a key to Maria’s success – funders responded. Founded in 1998, Casa de Santa Ana has been the daytime gathering place for hundreds of senior citizens, who pass their time fully engaged in not only intergenerational mentoring and socializing, but also participating in support groups, getting basic medical care, and enjoying delicious meals.

Perhaps most importantly, at the end of the day they go home to their families – where intergenerational bonds are especially precious.

Provocative box:
Childcare remains, in much of the world, a higher priority for government and private funders than eldercare. Perhaps if day care centers were open to both children and seniors there would be more of a commitment to the idea of “day care” for aging citizens.