Over the years society has shifted drastically when talking about neglected social groups. Lithuania in general is facing an existential crisis because more people are dying rather than being born each year. The focus has been made on children more than ever, while the elderly have started to be left out. Because of this shift, many families tend to worry about their children rather than their elderly parents that are in many cases too weak to live by on they own. I talked with Milda Grigaliūnaitė, a volunteer in the Malteser youth organization, about the elderly situation in Vilnius. When asked why elderly are ignored in modern society Milda expressed a few major reasons, namely emigration and poverty. She stated that: “ There are cases when grown up children emigrate from Lithuania and just leave their own parents alone in their homeland, sometimes even elderly with serious diseases. Also poverty among elderly in Lithuania is a growing issue due to comparably small pensions – elderly are left alone to deal with their problems while younger generations forget to take care of older generation and sometimes their relatives.” While talking I asked her how the elderly feel when someone actually come for a visit. Milda, having extensive experience in this matter, had this to say: “ It is no surprise that ignored elderly feel lonely day by day living alone. But when you talk with them everything changes – usually elderly are very happy and even grateful that you showed them attention by asking something and more importantly listening to them. All of them have stories worth telling. If Malteser Youth volunteers visit elderly at their home before holidays, elderly are very welcoming, always waiting for a volunteer’s visit with a cup of tea.” She also mentioned, that the experience goes both ways: “Volunteers are also very excited for the visits, because seeing a spark of joy in elderly eyes is inimitable.” Like all problems there must be ways to fix them so towards the end of our interview I asked Milda Grigaliūnaitė for solutions on this topic. She believes that communication and a sense of community is essential: “ I think that communication is a key way to solve this problem. There should be more help or day care centers for elderly where they could gather and spend time together talking, reading, maybe playing some kind of games or with help of volunteers even learn new activities such as handcrafts.“ Milda is optimistic that there could be enough participants in Vilnius for volunteering to try and make neglected elderly lives better. The fact remains, that our grandparents are seats of knowledge and an insurmountable source of experience that should not be forgotten by anyone.
This has been Kristijonas Ražickas for Step On A Post, Vilnius.