Canberra school kids and seniors work together to help people in need

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A group of Canberra school children and seniors with dementia have been working together to restore furniture for people in need. The engagement between the generations is also helping to reduce social isolation among the seniors and break stigma around a terminal disease.

Transcript

00:00Guys, you're all a lot taller than me, do you want to sit down for me?

00:09So this is our run of what we are thinking, if you guys like it.

00:17So Helen, do you, me and Cooper want to work on this chair?

00:23The students have started by refurnishing this old table that we've found, it's a beautiful

00:31six seater dining table, but through the process of doing that they're actually creating stronger

00:36bonds with each other as students, but they're also helping people with dementia as well.

00:43Yeah, see, and you just want to paint the top a bit, but we don't want big lumps so

00:47we only do little amounts.

00:49It's very pleasant to work with the young people, usually the teacher's standing up

00:55front giving orders, whereas working together we decide how things should be done.

01:01Yeah, it's a bit better, yeah, I learned that it's nice to just go and talk to them, like

01:07never, don't be shy if you never talk to somebody, you just go and say hi, have a chat.

01:13So I think the benefit for us is this is about growing the students as people and developing

01:17their skills, not necessarily the learning skills, the English and the maths, but this

01:21is about growing them as people, growing their empathy, growing their compassion, their understanding

01:26of the community and how they can contribute.

01:28Because we've got to get these all done for the nice mum, okay?

01:32Hello, lovely to meet you.

01:35Okay, we ready Jim?

01:37Even just the ability to have a new piece of furniture in the house when, you know,

01:42the cost of living is so high, there's just no way as someone on a carer's payment.

01:47I wouldn't be able to usually afford something like this, especially with this quality, so

01:53I really appreciate the fact that I've been chosen for this because it's very, very helpful.

01:58We very much appreciate it.

02:00It's okay, we're glad it's gone to a good home.

02:03I think it's been really good because they've got that insight that what they've achieved

02:08back at Kalina is now making an impact on the rest of the community as well and that

02:12they're valued parts of the community, so Helen coming here, she sees that end result.

02:17It's the end of the circle, so they all know that they've made a difference to someone's life.

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