October 1 - International Day of Older Persons

It often happens in life that children and their elderly parents living in the same city do not find time to see each other at least once a week.

An international holiday was established to protect the rights of the elderly. October 1 is celebrated worldwide as the International Day of Older Persons. This day is intended to remind children of their parents and relatives, to encourage them to show courtesy and care towards neighbors, and to once again extend a helping hand to those who are often too shy to ask for it.

Being elderly does not mean staying at home alone. Everything depends on the individual and the people around them. Many elderly people in Belarus lead an active lifestyle (according to statistics, every fourth elderly person maintains a healthy lifestyle — 26.3%):

1. They engage in volunteer activities: they provide assistance to animals, participate in the work of public, religious, and other organizations, and improve territories;

2. They engage in physical culture and sports in their free time;

3. According to statistics, more than half of Belarusian pensioners have access to the internet, and 70% of them access the global network daily. Primarily for sending and receiving emails, online communication, as well as for watching movies, playing computer games, interacting on social networks and forums, and downloading newspapers, magazines, and literature.

4. Age is not an obstacle to arranging one's personal life and starting a family.

The state policy towards the elderly in our country is based on the following principles: ensuring social and legal protection; financial provision with minimal guarantees; creating conditions for maintaining physical and mental health and active longevity; providing the elderly with social services, the types and quality of which meet their pressing needs; promoting the activities of veteran organizations, involving the elderly in the direct formation and implementation of policies and programs concerning the entire society and especially the elderly; creating the necessary conditions for participation in socially useful activities and the realization of the right to work.

Respect for elders is a mandatory condition for the existence of any healthy society. The Day of the Elderly is a pure and bright holiday, a holiday for our parents, grandmothers, and grandfathers. Not only on this day, but every day, we must give them our love, respect, and gratitude.

State Institution "Rassonsky RCGE", 2023.