The Older Generation – That’s We in the Future

Caring about other people is the primary duty in every person’s life

(Woodrow Wilson)

Within this program our primary goal is to make our society more spiritually developed. We believe that such principles as honouring parents and respect for the older generation are necessary for any prosperous nation. In our opinion, the respect for the older generation is the basis of well-being and prosperity of any country. Sooner or later each of us becomes a parent or a grandparent. By our example of the right attitude to the older generation we intend to pass the baton to future generations, who will then treat us in the same way.

This is why the Foundation’s priority under this program is to take care of retired citizens. Under this program, we give old people our attention,bring them flowers, gifts, arrange informative excursions and an exciting pastime, because we value them and want to at least partially repay them for their invaluable contribution to what we are now! They are people who built and developed the country, which is now our home.

Within this program we are going to promote:

• awareness of retired people’s lives, their merits and hopes;
• the spiritual enrichment of the younger generation, the interest of youth in the issues which the elderly are concerned about;
• revitalization of thematic elderly people’s clubs;
• the formation of a values system among young people, based on honor, reverence to parents and respect for the older generation;
• change in the perception of family relationships;
• increase of family and loyalty value in the community;
• restoration of the self-respect, of the sense of being needed and personal potential in elderly people, the desire to enjoy life and to share positive emotions with other people.

The global objective of the program is to make older people happier and more needed, but also to instill reverence and respect of the younger generation to them.

We believe that the promotion of the right attitude culture towards older people among the Ukrainian population will tremendously effect our nation’s development. After all, our parents that is us in the future!

The reasons for our choosing this program:

• moral - we are confident that an increase in the number of happy retired people will change the overall look of our nation for the better. Older people deserve be taken seriously, they deserve care and joy every day! We are confident that our exciting excursions, financial aid, organization of thematic clubs and promoting an active lifestyle will transform today's elderly people into a flowering generation!
• medical – positive attitude to life will increase the average life expectancy of Ukrainians by reducing cases of when normal functioning of the human organism is disrupted. The flow of positive emotions, joyfulness and smiles that we give elderly people today, tomorrow will come back to us as our dear grandparents with improved health;
• economic – we are convinced that a moral nation can produce a better product and in larger volumes. This will raise every Ukrainian citizen’s wealfare;
• branding – we are confident that honouring of the elderly will greatly increase our country's image in the eyes of the world society and will open up new development prospects.

Scientific opinion

"Grandmothers are our natural powers in their placability, love, and wisdom" (Ravil Aleev)

Caring of the older generation is young people’s responsibility. Scientists believe that taking care of one’s parents is where any person’s moral growth starts.

Caring of the elderly erases the gap between generations, helps to learn the wisdom of the ages, passed from father to son and mother to daughter. And this is a priceless experience that can not be obtained from school textbooks.

"The conflict of generations: the younger generation thinks that it can do everything better than the older one, the senior generation believes that it knows everything about the younger generation’s capabilities" (Alexander Citkin). Assimilation of this experience was always hampered by barriers between generations. For example, even Socrates pointed out that today's young people do not respect the elders, arguing with parents, and deriding their teachers. The conflict of generations later was discussed by Freud, G.Simmel, L.Kozer, R.Darendorf, Herbert Marcuse, L.Foyer, etc. However, the staff of the Foundation are convinced that just discussing problems makes no sense – in fact only by (без by тоже правильно, но можно спутать с существительным, вместо причастия) accentuating the positive aspects of the Generations’ Dialogue we will be able to see and develop its positive sides.

One of these sides is a continuation of the older generation traditions in the young people’s lives, which was pointed at by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. According to the PhD in Sociology of the State Polar Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg) M.Glotov "The succession of generations is the process of transferring, mastering, preservation and use of material and spiritual values, social information, and the experience of previous and coexisting generations." On the one hand, young people contribute to the preservation of traditions, on the other hand – they significantly alter and improve them. As A. Ivanov used to say: "It is all going the right way! And if the way is wrong, our descendants will say it" Young people's attitude towards the older generation is especially important - the more positive it is, the more effective the succession of generations will be.

"When the old generation is looking thoughtfully at the new one, then it wants to apologize to the previous generation" (V.Shvebel) The interrelation between generations contributes to their self-identity. Only communicating with our immediate "continuation", we can give a more or less objective assessment of our own actions. That is why under the Older generation that's we in the future program the Good Deeds International Charity Foundation managers will:

• purposefully eliminate barriers that prevent a full-scale dialogue between "Fathers and Sons",
• encourage youth initiatives towards the older generation’s support,
• promote active forms of recreation for the elderly, in which they would be able to engage with young people.

"In order to have the children become successors of generations’ heritage, we must first work on creating such a heritage" (Boris Krieger). Caring for the older generation is our sacred duty. These wonderful people have worked all their lives for our sake. The elderly have passed a great way full of great achievements: victory in World War II, development of virgin lands, space exploration, selfless contribution to the future of their country, children and grandchildren. People of past eras experienced joy of victories, selfless love for the Motherland, and also there were serious challenges. But even in the most difficult times they always believed in the best!

"To be a man means not only have knowledge, but also to do for the future generations what our ancestors have done for us" (Christoph Georg Lichtenberg). In the age of a spiritual crisis we must remember the eternal values again and again, we must remember our duty to those who created our present. We have to take care of the elderly with good kind words, giving them all possible assistance and attention. In fact so little is required to make elderly people happy! And all this we can and should do for them today: visit the elderly, help them, listen to them and arrange their leisure time, and much more. This would be only a small part of our irredeemable debt to the older generation, but even it has an enormous value. Support of the older generation is a crucial task for young people!