Yael Fischer may be only 17, but she is already the founder of a project whose aim is to improve the quality of life for lonely senior citizens across Israel and to bridge generational gaps.
Yael, a student at Ulpanat AMIT Givat Shmuel, created her project as part of her participation with the LEAD program in Israel, which inspires Israeli youth to be “leaders and influencers, not passive followers.” The idea of helping seniors came to her after her grandfather passed away when she was 12.
“During the shiva, I heard many stories about my grandfather and I understood that I never really had the opportunity to get to know him,” Yael recently told an Israeli newspaper. After that, she decided to begin visiting her grandmother on a weekly basis.
“I discovered how lonely she was,” Yael said. “She spends most of her days alone and longs for social interaction. I see how much my visits lift her spirits.”
Yael also soon found out how these visits with her grandmother benefit her as well. “Our conversations make me equally happy,” she said, adding, “I have gotten to know my grandmother and her life story as a Holocaust survivor. We share laughs and experiences together. Today I can say that she is my best friend—and I am hers.”
The LEAD program asked Yael to create a socially oriented program that deals with a topic she cares about. “They ask us to shine a light on a dark corner of Israeli society, and I immediately thought of my grandmother and our visits together.”
Yael did some research and learned that many of Israel’s senior citizens suffer from loneliness. “With the tools I received at LEAD, where they taught me not to give up and to fight for what is important to me, I was able to create this project that brings joy, light, and hope to dozens of people.”
She recruited dozens of volunteers who, in pairs of two, visit with senior citizens every two weeks. Each pair “adopts” a senior citizen, and they decide how they spend time together: some play music and sing, others go outside for a stroll, while other stay home and chat.
“In my opinion, there is something magical about the connection between youth and seniors,” Yael said. “The gap in age creates a big space in which mutual learning can take place. The younger generation hears about and learns from the older generation’s incredible stories, wisdom, and experience, while the older generation meets youth that have plenty to give back.”
On the occasion of Israel’s 70th Independence Day, Yael believes that Israeli society and its leaders should do some soul-searching about how the country’s older citizens are treated.
“We have the benefit of living at a time when those who built this country with their own hands, who experienced great hardship, are still among us, and we should take advantage of that and also thank them. Many seniors complain of loneliness, and we should take it upon ourselves to pay attention to them—including our own grandparents, whom we should visit and respect. We will all benefit greatly.”
Yael said her goal is to reach as many seniors as possible, and to make even a small difference regarding the problem of loneliness across the country.
“Everyone, at every age, can take responsibility and become a leader in their community and effect real change in society,” she said. “If each of us is aware of the issue and its importance and helps even one senior, the situation will be completely different.”
