Bhubaneswar: Silver Age Foundation for Elders organised the 4th Elders’ Fest on Sunday at the auditorium of Mother’s Public School in Unit 1 of Bhubaneswar.
Silver Age Foundation is Odisha’s only organization that works exclusively for the well-being of senior citizens. All its members are senior citizens who are taking various hobby classes like dance, karaoke singing, Hindustani classical music, yoga, painting, theatre, etc. to keep themselves active. It works on various senior citizen issues and runs classes for digital and smartphone use, dementia (bismaran in Odia) and Alzheimer’s disease, financial and legal awareness, better health and quality of life. The Foundation has about 120 members from across India. During Covid, it has provided much relief to senior citizens, helping them to come out of loneliness.
The event showcases the talents of senior citizens in various performing arts and is organized as a part of the Healthy Aging program. The event started with a group song. A play “Baramaja”, Odissi dance by 9 members, Casio keyboard music, group dance, fine art exhibition, rhythmic yoga were performed by members of Silver Age Foundation. The members have learnt these forms of art through online classes during the Covid period. They also practiced these performances online for more than three months. After restrictions for Covid were removed, the participating members continued the rehearsals during the last two weeks. A highlight of the program which was the audience appreciated a lot was the Bollywood group dance and the men member’s dance to the tunes of English song Daddy Cool. A total of 33 members participated in today’s Elder Fest.
Elders’ Fest is a celebrated as a part of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing which has been declared for the period 2021-2030. The annual event was held in physical form after a gap of two years. In 2020 and 2021, Elders’ Fest was held online. A fashion show and ramp walk was very attractive in 2019, when the first Elder Fest was held. In the coming years, Silver Age proposes to expand Elders Fest to include other forms of art and make it for whole of Odisha. Senior Citizen Associations from different cities of the state will be invited to participate.
