a place where school children can do their homework

Every evening after class, a short walk for these primary school students. 500 meters from their school, the EHPAD. They are expected to do their homework. Dictation, calculations, recitation, games, under the supervision of a referent, but with the complicity of the residents. Children love it. “We concentrate here because there is no TV there”, explains one of them. Some children no longer have their grandparents, others live too far away. So this little moment of exchange pleases them. “When I make drawings, I give them”says another schoolgirl.

Break the isolation

And the residents appreciate it. “It’s a treat to have these children here”says Claudine Salibar, a 97-year-old resident. “From the moment we do something, we start living again”, adds another resident. Breaking isolation, giving back a place to seniors in our society, this is the objective of the director: “We know that the children want to come, and that the residents want to welcome them”, explains Zohra Labelle, head of the residence L’ensoleillade Saint-Gaudens (Haute-Garonne). In France, several intergenerational initiatives of this type are multiplying.