Companions wanted for the elderly: Hangzhou nursing home dangles free lodging for young people

A nursing home in the east part of China is giving free of any charges entry to youngsters who have a willingness to make friends with its isolated residents and be in their surroundings for at least 10 hours a month. This is not the foremost time that the Sunshine Home is offering free of cost accommodation – a 30 sq m room with two single beds,  bathroom along with the rooms and a small balcony – all designed in this manner to motivate youngsters to visit and stay along with its elderly residents.

In the last two batches, a total of 30 young applicants were allowed into the “multi-generational housing” activity, an elderly-amiable initiative that was enforced in the year 2019 by the civil affairs bureau of the Binjiang district in Hangzhou. The accomplishment of the activity led to the nursing home to bring its third recruitment drive for about 15 to 20 companions. All recruits will be needed to sign a one-year contract with the home, according to China news outlet People’s Daily Online.

In the early days of the pilot scheme, the recruits were happy to commit 20 hours of their time each month to the elderly residents, and even when they had the opportunity to stay rent-free, they gave 600 yuan (S$113) in management fees every single month. Transformations have since been happening to the programme. Participants now require to set aside at least 10 hours a month for the elderly, and the management fee has been cut down to 300 yuan. The friends will be tentatively going to have conversations, have meals together and go for walks with the seniors and other activities.