By Chou Chia-Yi | Project Leader
We often hear people saying that after middle age, our learning ability and memory will deteriorate. Hence, learning new technologies development from computers, communication, and consumer electronics products becomes more challenging for most people after a certain age. Furthermore, the way we communicate, after middle age, with younger generation, is likely to be viewed annoying as we are keen to lecture and give instructions, but is this really true?
In fact, we have discovered, off the classes offered by many social clubs or community colleges that more and more people aged above 50 have been taking initiatives to learn and study new things. They are looking for their own interests to improve their expertise, and the diverse learning styles have gradually broken the boundary of age and the geographical restrictions...
During the COVID-19 pandemic period in 2021, like most organizations, the Mustard Seed Mission (MSM) was required to comply with social distancing rule. As a result, many senior citizens, whom we have deemed as our learning partners, felt anxious because they cannot continue to participate in-person classes. Alternatively, MSM has especially held an online reading and sharing session for senior citizens, targeting to invite people over 45 years old through the online meeting software. Online learning allows us to get across regional restrictions. Every month, we host to read one book online with subjects related to issues that senior people may face, we read and discuss online together.
The book, “The Second Mountain”, says that the second mountain in life, unlike the first mountain that we were pursuing money and success, is meant for serving and making contributions to the society.
As mentioned in the book "Be Your Own Work Designer", the workplace environment may be unpredictable, but we can make some adjustments to make our work more suitable to our lifestyle.
The book "Anti-Aging Class for Seniors" mentions that through weight training, aerobic exercise, diet, and lifestyle adjustments, we can become more energetic and younger. As a result, our last ten years of life span will not necessarily be spent in a hospital bed.
"Apart from experience, what are we left with" mentions how a seasoned employer can help Airbnb become the world's top online accommodation platform through his own experience, workplace wisdom, global perspective, high EQ, and insight. The cumulative years of workplace experience have not been in vain, these experiences can not only help others, but also help society.
"Rabbit, this is just a process" talks about various troubles of a middle-aged German man is facing, while using his sense of humor, complaining about his wife and his own body.
The "Declaration of Independence for Elder Women", through the perspective of single senior-aged women in Japan, presentsing discrimination against senior-aged women in Japanese society. On the contrary, Taiwan appears to still have room for improvement in this regard.
Since 2020, MSM has continued to invest in middle-age training fields, through the elderly people pre-care class, sewing class, undying flower class, coffee class, online reading and sharing session, e-commerce class, and enterprise career for elderly citizens, part-time job opportunities to swap for housing accommodation… etc. We are trying to lighten up the imagination of new life with elderly citizens, promoting the ideas that senior people do not work for money, but to serve others through work. With this purpose in mind, one can embrace the joy of both physical and mental training through social services, ultimately, creating an ideal and healthy life.
50+ Elderly Empowerment project encourages middle-aged and elderly people to re-enter the workforce and contribute to various fields in society, such participation will enrich their life and further create a fulfilling new life post-retirement.
Empower senior citizens aged more than 50-years with learning new skills and value their lives.
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