Organiser: Surt Foundation.
Collaborating organisation: Ramon Molinas Foundation.
Dates of implementation: 01/07/2016 – 30/06/2017.
¡Grandiosas!, programme promoting empowerment, active and healthy aging, and equal opportunities for elderly women
The Ramon Molinas Foundation is collaborating with the Surt Foundation with the objective of launching a programme which promotes empowerment, active and healthy aging, and equal opportunities for elderly women.
¡Grandiosas! wants to change the perception of aging – a period of your life which people associate with passivity, unproductivity and ostracism. The programme will deal with collective memory; in the form of travelling workshops and talks for individuals and groups, women taking part in the scheme will trace their historical memory of areas around the city using their experiences, memories and support. Their testimonies will be reflected in a series of journals called “Women with History”, which will be edited and published to preserve local memory.
Initially the programme will be developed in the Barcelona areas of Raval and Clot and will count on the participation, direct and indirect, of a total of 270 women of 65 years old. Once it has been finalised and valued, the possibility of extending it to other areas around Catalonia will be evaluated.
Empowerment to reinforce autonomy, improve social networks and promote civil participation
Starting with empowerment, ¡Grandiosas! is a community process designed to improve the quality of life of older women. Participation in the workshops and talks programmed, in which women will be reconstructing the historical memory of their local areas, will help them to weave new relationships with others and their local community, and encourage them to feel valued by society.
Similarly, ¡Grandiosas! works to prevent situations of discrimination by age and gender, in order to promote equal opportunities and to detect and provide support for women who suffer from situations of exclusion or loneliness. The programme will also respond to any needs which they detect.
Surt Foundation, an organisation with more than 20 years of experience
The Surt Foundation was create in 1993 as the Women’s Association for Labour Insertion. Its objective was to facilitate the process of the incorporation of women in the labour market, especially those who are more in more vulnerable positions due to their social, cultural or personal situation. 14 years later, in 2007, the association became the Surt Foundation.
Currently, the foundation aims to become a project of social impact and committed to women, in its efforts to construct an equal society. A society in which men and women have equal rights and opportunities without discriminations or subordinations.
Women over 65, one of the most vulnerable groups in society
18.5% of the population of Catalonia are over 65 years old. According to statistics from the Catalan Institute of Statistics (Idescat) in Catalonia there are more than 1,377,317 people who are over 65. The demographic changes of recent years, such as improved life expectancy and a decrease in the birth rate, has created an increase in the population of elderly people, putting significant pressure on society. If we separate the numbers by sex, women outnumber men by 200,000 in this age group, making up 20.8% of the total female population.
Life expectancy in Catalonia is above 80 years old, and Idescat predicts that it will continue to increase in the next five years in the same way that it has done in the last few decades. Consequently, life expectancy will increase to an average of 85.4 years old for women and 79.8 years old for men in 2012, and to 90.2 and 85.3 respectively by 2051. The demographic of the population over 65 years old will continue to be characterised by a larger number of women than men of the same age.
Currently, women over 65 are one of the most vulnerable groups in society. This is a demographic of the population that as a result of their socioeconomic status, which has worsened in recent years, have to confront a lot more obstacles than before. Economic hardship, loneliness, insecurity, discrimination, gender-based violence, a lack of judicial protection, the digital divide and a shortage of volunteers to properly care for women who don’t have any type of support network to rely on means that ¡Grandiosas! has become an important movement for the progress of its members, and for the progress of society as a whole.
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