With great joy, the María Luisa de Moreno International Foundation celebrated with 120 older adults, the Day of the Elderly at the Toronto Housing Community: Doug Saunders Building. This building is home to hundreds of older adults with limited resources and/or disabilities, most of whom live alone.
This event was planned with great care to bring a day of joy and fun to these seniors, who for the most part do not have much interaction with other people, and even less, following the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation was traumatic and left many with some emotional issues.
The event was culmination of the Community Food Program, which has been carried out for 13 consecutive weeks. This celebration was full of enthusiasm, music, singing, a presentation of Colombian folkloric dance presented by young volunteers from the foundation, the delivery of nutritional food baskets, as well as summer kits donated by CareHop. Carehop is an organization that specializes in the personal care of older adults/senior citizens, and they have been collaborating with the María Luisa de Moreno Foundation to provide these seasonal gifts/kits that are of great use to the elderly in our communities.
Many of the older adults were able to smile once again, thanks to the affection, emotion and joy transmitted by our volunteers. At the beginning of the program, these seniors, seemed to have lost the ability to smile due to the difficulties they faced on a daily basis during the pandemic. On this wonderful day, many danced, sang, and personally thanked the Foundation and Dr. María Luisa Piraquive for the assistance provided, and for those moments of joy and happiness that were brought to them with every delivery and on this special day.
