Two days later than I should have I am now kicking in on the Blog Action day action. This year’s focus is on Poverty. I was swishing an idea about in my mind that I would write about what I learnt when I was researching my essay last year about Early School Leavers. However something has since landed in my inbox and it really involves an actual action rather than just writing about it. Unfortunately I cannot personally action this as I don’t produce a podcast but I am appealing to all my podcasting friends and contacts to weigh in and be a friend to the elderly. Age is a significant factor in poverty and with all the economic doom and gloom in the news at the moment we all know that many people’s pensions are being decimated by forces beyond their control. This kind of poverty coupled with declining health and mobility can really isolate older people and Friends of the Elderly are aware that a friendly chat can do wonders to alleviate what might seem like impossible pressures. We all know that even talking to someone else can give us new ideas for coping with problems and offer us avenues to fix issues or people we can turn to in times of strife. If you are an older person in isolation those chats can sometimes become very rare and so you miss those opportunities to break out of vicious cycles that society can offer us.
I met Dermot Kirwan from Friends of the Elderly recently because he contacted me through my work with the IIA. Dermot is an inspiration, a man full of energy and ideas. I heard from him again recently because he emailed me a MP3 file of an ad that they have recorded with Christy O’Connor Jnr. They can’t afford to broadcast the ad on radio and are seeking donations to help them do so.
However it also occurred to me that this ad is in the perfect format for podcasters to include it in their own shows. So please be a Friend to the Elderly and include it in your next show.
ChristyOCGenFinal.mp3, 462k