Posted:
18.01.2023 11:33:00
With care and respect!
Belarusians actively responded to the proposal of the President to pay special attention to lonely elderly people during the New Year holidays
The new Belarusian tradition to congratulate not only children, but also the elderly on New Year’s holidays, which appeared at the initiative of the President, does not have a single format. But there is a prerequisite: you need to do this only with all your heart.
President Aleksandr Lukashenko,
“I would like this Our Children event, when we go with gifts to you, to continue and end on the New Year (or better, let it not end), so that we come to our old people and give them gifts, congratulating them on the New Year and Christmas.”
During a charity holiday as part of the Our Children campaign on December 29th, 2022
“I would like this Our Children event, when we go with gifts to you, to continue and end on the New Year (or better, let it not end), so that we come to our old people and give them gifts, congratulating them on the New Year and Christmas.”
During a charity holiday as part of the Our Children campaign on December 29th, 2022
Not for show
At the end of last year, during a charity event as part of the Our Children campaign, the President called for attention not only to babies, but also to older citizens during the New Year holidays. The initiative immediately found a response from the Belarusians. The idea was picked up by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the Ministry of Education, public organisations.The new event was called ‘From the Bottom of Our Hearts’. Already on January 3rd, phones all over the country in the homes of lonely elderly people rang, “Today you will have guests, just wait!”All that was needed was a small push — and the sympathetic caring Belarusian soul opened up to the fullest. Representatives of youth organisations — the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, the Belarusian National Pioneer Organisation, the Belarusian Union of Women, parliamentarians, representatives of local authorities and simply caring Belarusians have already congratulated hundreds of our fellow citizens across the country. They helped them with housework, chopped wood, shovelled snow, went to the grocery store, to the pharmacy for medicines. Elderly people were invited to big and small concerts; artists came to other places of residence. Young people and old people sang songs together with accordion and guitar, looked at old photo albums, shared opinions about what is happening in the world, discussed plans for the future and simply gave each other the warmth of human communication.
Moments that touch the heart
“We must keep up so that our country develops, and we live as long as possible and manage to leave something good for posterity,” says Boris Beilin, veteran of the Great Patriotic War. The legendary front-line soldier is happy to receive guests: a long-time family friend of the deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Aleksandr Danchenko and pioneers from the 5th school of Gomel.Boris Beilin shares memories of his life, which are enough for more than one volume of memoirs. He went to the front as a 17-year-old boy. He served on the 3rd Baltic Front as an air reconnaissance radio operator. Already in peacetime, together with colleagues, he brought the first truck of earth to the foundation of the Mound of Glory in Gomel.
Aleksandr Danchenko wished Boris Beilin to stay in the ranks for a long time. The deputy also admonished the pioneers. As an ‘Afghan’ warrior, he continues the work of patriotic education begun by veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
93-year-old Yevgenia Ivanovna Kapitsa from Shchuchin was so touched by the congratulations of local high school students that she could not hold back her tears of joy. And Danuta Yushkevich assured that after talking with the children, she looked younger, “I realised: communication with children is the best remedy for old age.”
There are 11 children in the large Gerasimov family. The guys, having learned about the From the Bottom of Our Hearts campaign, decided to visit the guests of the Nesvizh Psycho-Neurological Boarding School for the Elderly and Disabled. Over a cup of fragrant herbal tea, the children shared their interests and successes, discussed plans for the future, read Christmas stories and poems together, sang songs, and shared their smiles, good mood and warmth.
The real connection of generations is not only in theory, but also in practice. Gomel pioneers and volunteers visited Tamara Garanina, the founder of the volunteer movement, who has been engaged in charitable work in the Gomel Region for more than 30 years. Both children and adults received a charge of positive emotions from communication and parting words to preserve everything that exists in our country and increase the prosperity of Belarus through their work.
In the Pinsk District in the urban village of Logishin, volunteers congratulated the elderly on the New Year holidays in a special way. According to an old folk tradition, Kolyada came to visit the elderly. The costume performance did not leave anyone indifferent.
Today, there are more than 120,000 lonely elderly citizens in the country, who are especially in need of communication and attention during the New Year holidays.
At the same time, about 20 thousand more live in in-patient social service institutions, and for 100 thousand, day care and leisure activities are organised by territorial centres of social services for the population. Special attention is given to centenarians.
More than 400 people who have reached the age of one hundred live in the country.
By Svetlana Isaenok
