Coronavirus turned our plan for an April 7 live side-event at the UN’s 11th session of the Open-Ended Working Group in New York City into an online event. More than 130 people from 22 countries participated in our Lifelong Learning and Earning workshop including 4 breakout sessions hosted by 4 innovation experts via Zoom. Read here.

 

Carleen Mackay is an Emergent Workforce Strategist for the 21st Century, an alternative career planning expert, speaker, guest blogger & author of "Career Playbooks.” “I believe all generations of people must learn that their greatest investment is their investment in themselves!” In this blog, Carleen explains why we need to explore multiple, alternative ways of working. She then describes several of the many new ways to work from home or from across the world. Read here.

Pass It On Network co-founders Jan Hively and Moira Allan enjoyed their April 16 podcast interview with Dr Roger Landry, author of Live Long Die Short, a Guide to Authentic Health and Successful Aging. Listen to the first in a series entitled "The Bright of Longevity".  Listen here.

 

An estimated 40% of the world’s population was confined at home as of mid-April 2020 to stem the spread of COVID-19. On our recent quarterly calls, Pass It On Network Liaisons reported on COVID’s impact in Ukraine, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Rwanda, Canada, India, Singapore, Iceland, France, Ireland, USA, and the UK. View video here.

See ACAP’s Special COVID-19 edition covering the Asia-Pacific countries plus Canada, Slovenia, and Belgium

 

Read what ACAP (Active Aging Consortium Asia-Pacific) correspondents from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand, Canada, Slovenia, and Belgium are experiencing in response to the COVID-pandemic. In South Korea, for example, ageism and racism have flared as some people seek to blame others for the virus, while in Thailand there is increased solidarity, as is the case in Canada. Malaysia deplores its condition, with the highest death rate in March. The bulletin shares many best practices and useful resources that can benefit your community wherever you might be.

 

The Agewell Foundation, New Dehli, India, an NGO working for the welfare and empowerment of older adults since 1999, has just released findings of its current survey of 5000 older adults on the effects of COVID-19 lockdown. Results show that COVID-19 is taking a massive toll and founder, Himanshu Rath, urges rapid and urgent government intervention. View report here.

The Pass It On Network is expanding! We are pleased to welcome our new Network and Country Liaisons from Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

Dr. Kathryn L. Braun, a professor of Public Health and Social Work at the University of Hawaii, is an investigator on several federal grants to advance the health of indigenous and minority peoples. She serves as the President of the Active Aging Consortium Asia-Pacific, a group of like-minded gerontologists across the region. For more information, visit: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/publichealth/directory/kathryn-braun or email her at kbraun@hawaii.edu.

 

Femada Shamam is Chief Executive for The Association for the Aged (TAFTA) (Durban, South Africa) and board member of CommonAge. She has been working in the field of care and support for the elderly for 20 years. TAFTA brings food and hope to 7,500 people. She is very active in fostering a network of age-related organizations operating in the 17 African countries belonging to the British Commonwealth.

Jan Romme, of the Netherlands, is CEO of the Golden Days Foundation, an organization helping the elderly in need. He previously served for 15 years as CEO of the National Foundation for the Elderly (NFE), which was founded in 2000. In October 2012, the NFE launched the Elderly Ombudsman program where Jan, as an Elderly Ombudsman, is in frequent contact with the Dutch Parliament, governmental organizations and the media as an advocate for senior rights and welfare.

 

Silvia Zweifel, of Argentina, is an enthusiastic innovator and systems thinker. Her concept is a life-sustaining, inclusive “Economía Amable”, a people-and-nature-friendly-economy, which she spreads through her books, art-science exhibitions, and her new YouTube channel. Through “The World of Navis Utopia,” she spreads news about a world of possibilities, in which she sees the Pass It On community to be at the cutting edge. (See her “Learning and Earning” video link under the heading below, “Lifelong Learning.”)

 

Beatrice MUSHIMIYIMANA of Kigali, Rwanda, is the National Coordinator of NSINDAGIZA, an NGO promoting the rights of older people. NSINDAGIZA is a founding member of the GLAN - the Great Lakes Ageing Network, and partners with the Leave No One Behind Network, and with URUMURI RW’IZABUKURU (older persons coalition).

 

Isaac Ddumba, of Uganda, is the founder and executive director of the African Research Center 4 Ageing & Dementia, an NGO based in Uganda. He advocates for the inclusion of older persons’ polices at the national level. Isaac, who has postgraduate training in Social Gerontology and a Masters in Public Health, is a research fellow at Makerere College of Health Science, Kampala. His PhD research focuses on integration of long-term care for older persons within the Uganda health care system.

 

Vijay Naraidoo, of Mauritius, heads the Commission for the Rights of Older People of DIS-MOI, an NGO based in Mauritius that he founded in 2012. His mission is to develop a culture of human rights on the islands in the South West Indian Ocean Region. He works with HelpAge International (London and Nairobi offices) and GAROP (the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older Persons). He writes a weekly column on older persons rights for the local daily newspaper Le Defi.

 

Andie Gordon, of California, US, is an international meeting planner who began her late-in-life career at the age of 50 as an international corporate events planner for the investment firm Lehman Brothers. Following the demise of Lehman in 2008, she joined Bloomberg Financial Capital as a consultant. For the past several years, living in California, she has been working primarily as a research assistant for architects at HGA, a national architectural firm.

 

"Elderly Care: A Guide for Families New to Caring offers valuable information such as: getting started on finding care, understanding different and varied care options available, as well as calculating costs and legal considerations when planning for elderly care. The publication also describes some home modifications and assistive technologies that can improve the daily living of elderly family members,” The guide is published by SuperCarers, a UK match-up organization.

In-Law Suites and Backyard Bungalows as Housing Solution. Known by terms ranging from backyard bungalows to granny flats, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can play a major role in expanding housing options. Watch a set of new videos on ADUs, located toward the bottom of AARP’s Future of Housing home page. The website includes many useful resources, including a Home Fit Guide for structural changes to make homes more livable, and a No-Cost, Low-Cost Ideas Pamphlet for smaller, less-expensive changes.

Agewell Foundation conducted a national Survey on Access to Justice and Right to Work in Old Age to coincide with the Eleventh session of the Open-Ended Working Group which was to held at UN in April and was cancelled because of Covid-19. Recommendations for the right to work include pre and post retirement training to provide soft skills, digital literacy, communications; employment exchanges job fairs for older workers and promoting anti age discriminatory practices in the labor market. Full report here.

“People plus 50 must give back to society.” The famous Singaporean social enterprise Dignity Kitchen launched a branch in Hong Kong early this year and Rebecca Choy, our Pass It On Network Liaison in Hong Kong and Founder/CEO of the Golden Age Foundation, interviewed the founder, Mr Kohn. Dignity Kitchen provides specially-designed training for people with disabilities and disadvantages, enabling them to make a variety of Singaporean foods and beverages. As a result, they are able to support themselves, live with dignity, and integrate into society. Ten years ago when he turned 50, Mr Kohn gave up a stable career to venture into this unchartered field. Rebecca Choy says she hopes his story will encourage many more Golden Agers to give back to society and start a fruitful second life. View video here.

Our new Liaison from Argentina, Silvia Zweifel, illustrates how much meaning can be added to words on a page when she is seen and heard on this seven-minute video describing the meaning of “Learning for Earning.” As she says, “We have to bring in the earnings that will allow us to celebrate life, locally and globally, in a multigenerational, inclusive society.” View video here.