To celebrate the International Day of Elderly Persons, Social Fund opens its 900th Communication Center for Seniors in Crimea. Today, the Fund also marks three years since the launch of centers intended for elderly citizens in the premises of its offices all across the country.
In the three years of the centers' operation, the Social Fund has run 140,000 events attended by 1.3 million people. According to Sergey Chirkov, Chairman of the Social Fund, this year, communication centers open under the Family national project and its federal project, Elderly Generation.
Today, the communication centers operate in 87 Russian regions, including historical ones. The first center in Luhansk Republic opened in April, in Zaporozhye Region – in July, in Kherson Region – in September. A center in Donetsk People's Republic will open shortly. Over 300 new centers have launched all over the country this year.
They were initially designed as spaces where elderly people could spend their free time productively, get help with issues related to their pensions and social support. In practice, the functions of the centers proved to be much broader: they provide computer and financial literacy training, consultations on fraud protection and personal finance management, hold tours, creative workshops, literary evenings, and other events to promote rich and active lifestyle for elderly people.
"We are honestly trying to make activities in our centers useful, varied and fun. We are expanding our event programme constantly. Up to 10,000 elderly people visit our centers every day. For them, our venues have become a veritable home for creativity, new knowledge, volunteer work and warm, friendly communication," Mr. Chirkov says.
This year, communication centers have put all their soul and warmth into celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, with about 6,000 events hosted across the country. The Fund's venues are also places that care for the heroes of today. They constantly support servicemen participating in the special military operation: knitting warm clothing, making camouflage nets and bunker candles.
In total, the Social Fund's centers have hosted 64,000 events for the elderly since the year's start, attended by 600,000 people. The center development effort will continue in order to make as many seniors as possible feel the love and care provided by the Fund and the government