Our Vision & Ambitions
Vision
WorldGranny strives for a world where all older people, together with their family and community, are able to live a healthy, safe and social life without poverty..
WorldGranny contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of older people, their families and their communities in development countries. In the Netherlands, WorldGranny works on creating awareness of the situation of older people in development countries and recruits funding to support projects there.
Why older people?
Older people belong, together with children, to the most vulnerable and poor groups in development countries. Social networks and structures in many development countries are damaged by the HIV/aids epidemic, migration and wars. In most development countries, no basic state pension or personal pension scheme exist. Nevertheless, the ones who more and more often keep on being the caretakers, are the grandparents. They take care of their grandchildren when the parents have either left, are looking for a job somewhere, or have died from the consequences of HIV/aids.
Investing in older people contributes to a structural poverty reduction for the older person self, their families and their environment. Consequently, this means that investing in older people in development countries, is to invest in the future. It can lead to a structural construction of poor communities.
Ambitions
WorldGranny's mission and activities join up to the International Actionplan of the United Nations, drawn up in Madrid (Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging, 2002) and to the Millennium goals (MDG; 2000-2015) for reducing extreme poverty to half.
A few of these Millennium goals are related to WorldGranny's mission:
The first Millennium goal states that extreme poverty and hunger must be halved in 2015. As is often the case, older people belong to the very poorest in their environment, especially so the older women.
The second Millennium goal states that all boys and girls on the planet must go to school. WorldGranny invests in older people who bear responsibility for young children. With this aid, extra money comes available, so that they are able to buy school equipment for their grandchildren. This also means that it is no longer necessary for children to work, or to take part in prostitution.
The third Millennium goal states that women and men must have equal rights. The biggest part of all older people are female. Investing in the position of older women, such as WorldGranny does, contributes to the realization of their economic and social rights.
The seventh Millennium goal states that people's living situation should be improved. An important part of the WorldGranny program "Care & Development" is the realization of basic needs of older people and their families, such as good sanitary facilities and access to clean drinking water. This is the way that WorldGranny dedicates to an improvement of their living climate.