Is it realistic to expect the over 50s to have no need for paid employment?
Fabafterfifty: Volunteering
Volunteering in your 50s and 60s can make a significant difference to others and be extremely rewarding.
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Article by Ceri Wheeldon I attended an interesting event last week where the main focus was to identify how to support people over 50 through the path to self-employment. Much of the day was constructive (apart from the imput of an economist from the EU who insisted on referring to the over 50s as ‘older people’ or ‘old people’ throughout-(but that’s another post for another time!) but there was one part which provoked debate and for me concern. Should the over 50s volunteer and not be encouraged to do paid work One of the panel discussions was hosted ‘by Esther Rantzen who took the debate off course as she started the session off by saying that the last thing we should was encourage the over 50s to work- as they were needed in the voluntary sector- and how would charities survive without them? Suggesting that those in their 50s had...
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Diane Goes to Ghana to Help a Community cope with Heartbreaking Poverty and Deprivation
Article by Diane Priestley Diane Priestley is an Australian journalist now living in London who travelled to Ghana in Africa with Madventurer as a volunteer. Here she writes about her experiences at an impoverished beach village that desperately needs outside support to break free from the poverty trap and improve the future for hundreds of isolated, deprived children. Maranatha is an isolated, impoverished community on a windswept strip of beach between the open ocean and the Volta River on the south-eastern coast of Ghana. The fishing community of around 700 people (with more than half the population children) live in huts made of palm trees and the children attend barren classes in dilapidated bamboo shelters with broken concrete floors. The beach village is one of the poorest corners of Ghana with the greatest need for the basics of food, water, sanitation and buildings. The villagers live mostly on Banku, a...
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Midlife Adventure: How do you go about climbing Kilimanjaro?
Interview with Jo Bradshaw It would seem we are an adventurous group of women! I have received lots of emails in response to the ‘fabwomen’ featured, from readers saying that they would like to have their own midlife adventure over 50. I have selected the most popular adventures and asked for tips on how to get started on an adventure holiday or charity challenge. Climbing Kilimanjaro seems to have captured a lot of imaginations, so we asked Jo Bradshaw who is a freelance Outdoor Instructor and Expedition Leader often working for Discover Adventure, she completed her 10th climb of Kilimanjaro earlier this year for her tips. What are the options in respect to ways to join a group to climb Mt Kilimanjaro? The easiest way is to join a group from a UK tour operator, such as Discover Adventure! This way you will know that all of the details are...
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Feeling good by doing good – helping to tackle loneliness in older people
Guest Article by Sarah Ingram Sarah Ingram took a six-month sabbatical from her job at John Lewis to help a national charity tackle loneliness in older people. She tells Fab After Fifty about her challenge. Most of us would probably admit to feeling lonely now and again but older people who live alone without family or friends can often go for weeks on end with no social contact whatsoever. Loneliness can lead to depression and other problems, and according to research by Age Concern and Help the Aged in 2009, over one million older people are often or always lonely. In February 2009, 54-year-old Sarah Ingram from Cambridge decided to make a difference by working with Contact the Elderly. The charity aims to relieve the acute loneliness of isolated older people aged 75 or more by organising free afternoon tea parties one Sunday a month for small groups within local...
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