HOUSTON: An army of volunteers and students are combining to assist themselves and keep the elderly in their own homes.
College students pay no rent in exchange for spending 30 hours a month doing “the heavy lifting” around the house.
“They go see the pensioners for a chat, they play games, go with them to the shopping mall, (and) do shopping for those who can’t,” said activity coordinator Arjen Meihuizen.
“When you’re 96 years old with a knee problem, well, the knee isn’t going to get any better, the doctors can’t do much”.
“But what we can do is create an environment where you forget about the painful knee”.
“Intergenerational” projects are springing up everywhere. In some schemes, the elderly rent out a room in their own house or apartment, in others, housing projects are built specifically to house the young with the elderly.