Kivun Chadash – Gimla’im
July 16, 2014
By: Dahava Eyal
A new program training volunteers to assist seniors with cognitive decline
Earlier this month we gathered at the Tarbut Aleh café for the first get-together of “Kinetic and Connected” volunteers, along with representatives of our partners in the project – the Emda organization, Ezer Mizion, and Aleh Rechovot.
As you may recall, in the December 2013 issue of “Kivun Chadash,” we reported on the program and also invited serious, motivated people to sign up for this challenging, professional course to train them as volunteers for the innovative program geared for seniors with cognitive decline.
As you will see from the rest of this article, our call was well-received. When the candidates told us about themselves and discussed their expectations from the special “Kinetic and Connected” program, our immediate impression was that we were privileged to become acquainted with a very variegated and select group. Represented among them were people from educational, caregiving, and nursing fields, as well as the field of scientific research. Some declared their personal identification with the program’s goal, while others came to us with a lot of benevolent volunteering intentions and the hope that they would be able to help the elderly and their families.
At the get-together, the volunteers were given information about the training course and about the program as a whole. “Kinetics and Connected” is based on the understanding that it is possible to slow down the rate of seniors’ decline by implementing activities geared to preserve their existing sensory, motor, social, and cognitive capabilities. In addition, the volunteers were introduced to the kit that would serve them in the course of the program – a kit containing seven collections of accessories representing activities in various areas.
The training course is scheduled to begin in a few weeks. It will take place once a week, in the afternoon hours. At this stage, a few new applicants can still be admitted. We again invite serious, motivated people to join us.
For details, call Varda Kahana, director of the Ezer Mizion branch in Rechovot, at tel. # 052-4391594, or Tzippy at Aleh – *8870.
