Juan José, the director of the Campolongo Residence for the Elderly, has launched this initiative after final Christmas he detected an environment of unhappiness amongst its residents “Not a dozen of them went house with their households,” he says. the particular person in control of the middle to NIUS
When Juan José López (Madrid, 1961) started to run the general public nursing house in Campolongo (Pontevedra) in the summertime of 2021, the very first thing he considered was handle household visits. “I believed it was going to be the primary organizational drawback,” he informed NIUS.
He imagined the middle full of kids and grandchildren each Sunday. Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality. “I discovered that each weekend, out of 100 residents, solely three or 4 acquired guests,” he says.
Then got here essentially the most particular dates of the yr, Christmas. And extra of the identical. “Not a dozen of them went house to their households,” he says.
Living with them these days for the primary time, Juan José understood that Christmas was not a reasonably date for the overwhelming majority of its residents. “The worst day of the yr within the residence is, indisputably, Christmas Eve. They are particularly nostalgic, ”he assures.
For this motive, this yr, the director of this residence in Pontevedra has determined to do one thing to transmit life to its residents. He needs pleasure to enter the middle within the type of playing cards.
“What is left over hurts us: loneliness”
To launch the initiative, Juan José despatched a letter to his contacts by phone. A really harsh letter during which he names the primary drawback suffered by the aged.
“We are usually not in need of life, I guarantee you. We don’t lack want, pleasure, laughter or hope. In this universe of ours we lack nothing; if something, what’s left over hurts us: loneliness”, says Juan José.
Now, advance within the letter, a ‘black’ date is approaching for the grandparents of the residence. Because though there they’re completely cared for and cared for by the workers, many miss the heat of a household.
“Soon it will likely be Christmas, the saddest time in our home, as a result of every part that was hurts us, every part that isn’t, and every part that can not be, and, as well as, we dwell it alone, as a result of there are usually not many who They have a household to return to and I need, I want!, to make them really feel that they’re nonetheless alive”, signifies Juan José.
And to switch that life to them, Juan José has requested his contacts to ship letters with which to convey pleasure to their residents.
“I need a bathe of affection within the type of letters, messages, congratulations, photographs. Missives filled with affection during which you allow them to know that they rely on you, that you don’t overlook them. Photos, reminiscences, love in bulk in order that they perceive that their life continues to have that means. A thousand drops of affection that generate a rain that drenches you with new vitality. Tell them that they don’t seem to be alone ”, he factors out in his letter.
The objective of a thousand playing cards
A drawing, a congratulation, a poem, a photograph. That is what Juan José asks for his residents. His objective is for no less than a thousand letters to reach on the residence throughout Christmas.
The thought of the director of this heart is that every senior can obtain ten messages and, over the following few months, can reply them.
“I need my ladies and my boys (as she calls grandparents) to answer each a kind of letters. We are going to return all of the love that they’re going to give us, ”he explains hopefully.
Without making worth judgments in regards to the wants and capabilities of every household, Juan José invitations us to mirror. “They are our dad and mom and our grandparents and, no less than slightly little bit of our life, we should always dedicate it to them too.” Therefore, he encourages us all to take part.
These letters should be despatched within the title of the “Residents of the Campolongo Residence for Maiores”, at Avenida María Victoria Moreno road, quantity 26, with the postal code 36003 of Pontevedra.