Volunteering

Starenki was born as a volunteer project – a project by caring people who just wanted to do something to help the elderly in need. More than 7 years have passed since then and now we call ourselves the volunteering Foundation, because the essence has remained the same – we are a community of volunteers who help the lonely elderly in hardship. In our team we have a few employees and outsourced specialists, but most of the Starenki team are volunteers who do something for Starenki on top of their jobs and enjoy it.

The main areas of volunteer assistance in Starenki are:

  • participation in packing and delivery of food and hygienic packages to our elderly wards – they are always very happy to see us and our visit for them is often the biggest event of the month
  • participation in tea party as a sponsor of sweets and/or a volunteer at the tea party itself, who communicates with older ladies and gentleman and helps with the entertainment program
  • assistance with professional tasks of the fund (design, translations, working in individual projects)
  • creative ambassadorship – holding creative events in favor of the wards of the foundation or to draw attention to the problems of the elderly.

Delivery and Tea Parties

Delivery

Food aid packages delivery is the address delivery organized for the Foundation’s dependents. A social worker always accompanies our volunteers when they visit elderly people.

One volunteer usually travels by car, joined by a volunteer on foot and a social worker. Sometimes they can be accompanied by a photographer or journalist. One volunteer in the crew must be experienced and understand the whole process.

Delivery takes place only on weekdays between 9:00 and 16:00. The whole process takes about 3 hours and gives you a dose of different emotions (there will definitely be positive among them!). During this time you will visit 10 elderly people and make them feel that they are cared for and not forgotten.

Our food aid package was created based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization and changed according to the requests of our dependents. One package weighs 8-9 kg, and it lasts for about a month.

Tea parties

An event organized by the Foundation's volunteers for those dependents who still want and can go somewhere. It is organized in the premises of the territorial center for the provision of social services and with its assistance.

Volunteers set the table with various delicacies and organize a program for the elderly - a performance of musicians or poets, a lecture or a lotto game. The Foundation also organizes the handout of food aid packages at the event.

Our dependents love tea parties and are always very prepared for them - they put on their best dresses, get ready and learn new poems. Every tea party for them is an opportunity to communicate with each other and with young people and get distracted from gloomy thoughts.

If you want to help the elderly people and join us as a volunteer, we offer you the following steps:

The safety of our dependents is our top priority.

Older people are a very vulnerable category of the population.

They are more likely than others to fall victim to scammers and robbers because of their gullibility and lack of other people around to protect them. In Coronavirus times, their health vulnerabilities have also become apparent - it is the elderly who may have the most severe side effects from coronavirus.

Therefore, we consider it especially important to follow the rules that promote the safety of our recipients. There are rules for volunteering in our Foundation and all volunteers should get acquainted with them and sign a formal agreement.

Important points that should always be remembered and strictly adhered to:

  • ALWAYS join the parties and tea parties ONLY if you feel healthy and don’t have any symptoms
  • NEVER take phone numbers and home addresses of the dependents – direct communication of volunteers with dependents without a social worker is prohibited due to dependents’ security considerations
  • It is FORBIDDEN to disclose dependents’ personal information

What are the options for volunteer-ambassador assistance?

For those who do not have the opportunity to volunteer in food packaging and delivery, there are many options to join. We have many examples of our volunteers creating magic for Starenki! You can get inspired here (link to the section in the Blog)

YOU CAN BE INSPIRED HERE

Our Volunteers say