On sunny days of March 6-7th 2017, 50 young volunteers gathered in Edinet for a traning “Homecare services and communication with the elderly people”. The participants came from 5 villages that are involved in the project “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova”. The event was facilitated by Elena Adașan, expert in homecare services and pedagogics and director of Balti Social-Medical Centre “Rebeca”, part of NGO “Homecare”.
The event started with ice-breaking exercises and the introduction to the topic where the participants discussed the concept of homecare and the importance of it. Youngsters shared their background knowledge in this area and realized that there was something more to learn to make their volunteering experience more beneficial. Afterwards, the group focused on the communication process and in form of interactive exercises they practiced transmitting different messages and defining the aims of communication.
After the refreshing coffee break the participants were ready and eager to discuss the peculiarities of the communication with the elderly people. In form of a role play the teenagers practiced the new skills and had some fun while acting out a conversation between a village mayor and volunteers and elderly beneficiaries.
In the afternoon the training activities were mainly devoted to the volunteering and homecare services. In two teams the youngsters defined the positive and negative qualities of the volunteer and realized that the first list is much longer than the second.
This exercise was followed by the discussion of the homecare services that can be provided by young volunteers and how to do it in the best way.
Overall, the participants were very active during the event, especially when it came to interaction, teamwork and competition. They were glad to meet their peers from other villages and encouraged to continue helping the elderly and volunteer in the project.