This year’s BBM’rs – Fed Bar-Bat Mitzvah programme participants – have been finding out how it may feel to be elderly and living with physical and sensory difficulties or dementia – and though they had a lot of fun there was plenty of frustration, fear, anxiety, and irritation!
Programme leader, Natasha Harries, organised games, and activities which gave the 12- and 13-year-old participants a chance to actually experience the challenges of ageing. These included: a very frustrating blank jigsaw puzzle race which highlighted how people may struggle to carry out a seemingly simple task; Read My Lips – a game demonstrating how tough it is to live with hearing loss; blindfolded guided walk and wheelchair ride – illustrating how older people have to put their trust in the people who help them; kaleido- golf – playing while wearing kaleidoscope glasses to illustrate how difficult life becomes when you have sight loss; Operation – the classic kids’ game which tests hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills but wearing gardening gloves – to highlight the challenges due to loss of dexterity as we age.
Natasha was helped by volunteer coordinator colleagues Lydia Lewis and Debra Foster and a team of volunteers.
The sessions made a great impact on the youngsters who later reflected on their experience in their programme journals: one wrote that the session made them “feel truly sad for them”, and another said that the session meant that in the future it would “make me want to make life happier and better for people living with dementia”.
The programme runs until the end of the school year when a graduation celebration will be held.