Senior with pleasure

How did it all start? The child with joy is the child of Jana Najbrtová. Read her story:

As a child, I grew up with a much older father and a corporate mother who was constantly at work. Our relationship with my father soon switched from caregiver to caregiver. I consider this to be the beginning of my relationship with seniors. The relationship with my mother then made me decide to go my own way. Instead of following the business tradition, I left school and decided to become a yoga teacher. When, at the age of 24, for the first time after the carousel that followed my decision, I stopped and looked around, I began to meet grandmothers crying in the center because they had no bread left. They sat alone in the park with their hands in their laps.

In 2015, I started to describe and call on existing organizations and I wanted to do something about it. Unfortunately, they were not interested anywhere at the time, so it was up to me. I don' t believe that everything can be solved only by finances, I decided to open yoga lessons for seniors at my own expense and it turned out to be the right choice. Thanks to exercise, the health of their musculoskeletal system has improved, thanks to breathing techniques the function of the respiratory system and thanks to the meditation of their psyche. But the company did the most and the opportunity to get into a nice, clean environment and among people. Because I was mainly a yoga teacher at the time and I trained instructors in my teaching academy, others soon started joining me. After a year we had five places in the country, after two years there were already 20 of them and now we are in Slovakia and we have a little over 100 volunteers from the fields of yoga and fitness, as well as medicine, law or finance. For the first four years, Senior was happily a relatively standard non-profit organization, and this interesting thing happened only this year.

In 2019, the most important milestone for us was the beginning of social entrepreneurship through an agency mediating paid and volunteer positions for seniors. Together with the agency, we won the main prize in the Social Impact Award 2019 and aroused great interest from seniors, companies and the public. We already have the first paying clients. However, technological development also had to come with the agency, so we started building a simple application that could be used by even the oldest seniors. In it, we build a platform for ensuring safety, communication between seniors and institutions, carers, family and community building. They can find interest groups in the area, use a library of videos for body and head exercises, audio and e-books or podcasts. Through gambling, the application then becomes relevant for children and grandchildren, who thus re-establish contact with the oldest members of the family. This will then be supported by the Born 1918 project, which begins this year with a competition for the second stage of primary school, grammar school, vocational school and secondary school, where children will bring the wisdom and experience of the oldest generation in an innovative way. I can also reveal that in the future we plan to create a “senior city“ in the Czech Republic, where generations will still clash, but without barriers. It will be within a driving distance of 40 minutes from Prague and will help populate one of the “dying cities“. The future belongs to seniors.

At the moment, we are mainly dealing with helping seniors during the health crisis. At the moment, in addition to bans and recommendations, it is necessary to add opportunities to help overcome the paralysis that has crippled society. Seniors are trampled on and don' t want to deal with anything. The younger public almost ostracizes them, stops on the streets, shouts, sends them home. It forbids them to communicate with each other and subsequently only fear and negation from them from all media. It is therefore necessary to include positive stimuli. To give space in the media for body and head exercises, to connect seniors with the public through a telephone or computer. We have 1,500 volunteers throughout the country. And what can they help with? These are definitely purchases, where seniors will need to order a purchase in the application or on the web, based on a phone call. We also offer online or telephone sessions with volunteers. Walking dogs, distribution of drugs. We have several therapists, psychologists and crisis interventions available to seniors online or over the phone. Online programs for seniors for body and head exercises are available on our website, which our volunteers will be happy to help seniors run and set up. For those who do not have a computer, we have a window in the media with a doctor, psychologist and specialized instructors. We will be very happy if you let the seniors know with us and you will really help.

Projects of the organization Seniors with joy:

• Senior during coronavirus and emergency in the Czech Republic due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Take grandma to the movies