¡Grandiosas! will collect the testimonies of women between 60 and 80 years old, publishing them in a series of journals.
‘Women with history’. With this title, the Surt Foundation will edit and publish the resulting journals of ¡Grandiosas!, a programme which is working towards changing the perception of aging, a period of time in life that people frequently associate with passivity, unproductivity and ostracism. With the collaboration of the Ramon Molinas Foundation for the second consecutive year, ¡Grandiosas! promotes empowerment, active and healthy aging, and equal opportunities for older women.
Through travelling workshops and talks for both individuals and groups, taking part in the scheme will trace their historical memory of areas around the city using their experiences and memories as contributions. The programme will be developed in the neighbourhoods of Raval (in the Ciutat Vella district, Barcelona), in Besòs (Sant Martí district, Barcelona) and Sant Roc (Badalona). A total of 60 woman will participate between 60 and 80 years old.
¡Grandiosas! will work using a comprehensive, community approach. It will directly reach citizens by raising awareness, organising cultural events and festivals such as the 50th anniversary of Sant Roc, the Raval Cultural Festival, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and International Day of Older Persons, among others.
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. In Catalonia, 18.7% of the population are over 65 years old, according to statistics from the Catalan Institute of Statistics (Idescat). 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.
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.
More information in Community Action.
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