News | Osuuskunta VoiVa

15/06/2019

‘My Human Rights, My Well-Being’ booklet has been published

This booklet, by our Erasmus+ funded Two Moons project is a collection of stories from older people with a shared common theme: infringements of older people’s human rights as protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD). The stories, three from each country, Finland, Ireland, Italy and Romania, cover a range of situations that older people universally encounter in their day to day life.The booklet also includes practical information about how to report human rights violations and which organisations to contact for support. Please download the booklet here.

My Human Rights, My Well-Being Booklet is one of four resources being developed by Two Moons – a two years Erasmus Plus funded project. The main objective of Two Moons is to design accessible education resources to support older people’s learning in the field of human rights. Knowing about human rights can empower older people to speak up and challenge poor treatment and demand better services.

25/03/2019

Analytical Report on Abuse of Older Women by TISOVA project has been published

The TISOVA project (2017-2020), funded under the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission, seeks to train employees and volunteers of senior centres as well as older people to identify and provide assistance for older victims of abuse. Within the interactive training program developed as an outcome of the project, the main objective is to educate these key groups on violence perpetrated against elderly, as well as on the experiences and specific needs of elderly victims of abuse.

The first publication of the project, ”Analytical Report on Abuse of Older Women in Selected European Countries”has now been published. The report explores existing research on violence against older women as well as experiences and needs of both older women and professionals in the project countries. The report works as the foundation for the currently developed training curriculum in the project.

Download report.

08/03/2019

The 1st newsletter of the Two Moons project has been published

“Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins”

Two Moons aims to develop education resources to inform and enhance older people’s knowledge of their human rights and how these rights should operate in practice, equipping them with the tools to assert and claim their rights. The first newsletter of the project presents the project, its upcoming outputs and web platform. Highlights from the project’s first partner meeting in Dublin in autumn 2018 are also presented. Please read the full newsletter here.

11/02/2019

Education resources on older people’s human rights to be developed

The Erasmus+ funded “Two Moons” programme is pleased to launch its new website platform https://twomoons.eu. The web platform will support the delivery of the 2-year pan-European initiative aimed at improving older people’s knowledge of their human rights as protected un-der the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD); and by so doing empower them to safeguard their well-being.

The process involves older people, social care professionals and community members in a collaborative creative process, providing older people with an opportunity to share their stories in print, audio and through documentary theatre.

The web-platform will feature news, blogs, project resources and updates, such as reports, policy briefs as well as opportunities for engagement e.g. events, workshops and face to face training sessions.

Read the full press release regarding the web platform here.

10/01/201910/01/2019

Project WHOSEFVA’s online course has been published

Project WHOSEFVA (Working with Healthcare Organizations to Support Elderly Female Victims of Abuse), a two-year project co-funded by the European Commission under the Daphne programme has recently come to an end. The WHSOEFVA project was implemented in six partner countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia and the UK.

The main objective of WHOSEFVA was to increase the capacity of domestic violence organizations to better represent the interests and voices of older women who are victims of abuse. To ensure greater accessibility and sustainability of the project trainings on a European-level, a WHOSEFVA online training programme was developed.

The training programme, targeted at health and social care professionals, is in English and video-based but additional subtitles are available in all six project languages. To register and take part, please visit the project website.

Please share the course also with your colleagues and friends.

21/11/201830/01/2019

VoiVa participated in the #AgeingEqual campaign with blog posts

Since October 1st, VoiVa has been taking part in the #AgeingEqual campaign by AGE Platform Europe. The campaign celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, raises awareness of the magnitude and gravity of ageism and aims to establish a lasting community and platform for action against ageism. The theme of the campaign this week has been ageism and abuse. In VoiVa’s projects (Whosefva, Tisova and Two Moons) the training of health and social care professionals is based on older people’s human rights and professionals are taught to also identify ageism. VoiVa took part in the #AgeingEqual campaign by writing two blog posts:

Combating elder abuse requires to promote older people’s human rights

Preventing elder abuse: educational resources from collaborative projects

01/10/201830/01/2019

International Day of Older Persons

October 1 has been established as the International Day of Older Persons by The United Nations General Assembly.Observed since 1991, the day aims to raise awareness about issues affecting the elderly, such as ageism and elder abuse. It is also a day to appreciate the contributions that older people make to society.

2018 is a special year since The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turns 70 and the International Day for Older Persons celebrates the importance of this Declaration, and reaffirms the commitment to promoting the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by older persons.

Through EU-funded projects such as TISOVA (Training to Identify and Support Older Victims of Abuse), VoiVa Coop works to make ageism and discrimination visible in the society. Further, we aim to generate positive change in older people’s lives by empowering them to live as active engaged citizens and to secure their human rights. For instance, the trainings in project WHOSEFVA emphasised older people’s human rights and the role of age- and gender-based discrimination in the phenomenon of violence agaist older people.

VoiVa is also taking part in the #AgeingEqual campaign by AGE Platform Europe. The campaign aims to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, raise awareness of the magnitude and gravity of ageism and establish a lasting community and platform for action against ageism. Read the #AgeingEqual press release and join us!

12/09/201812/09/2018

TISOVA project’s 2nd partner meeting in Helsinki

The TISOVA (Training to Identify and Support Older Victims of Abuse) project, funded under the Erasmus+ element of the European Commission in years 2017-2020, will organise a partner meeting in Eurooppasali, Helsinki, Finland from Wednesday 12 September until Friday 14 September 2018. More than a dozen representatives from partner countries Finland, Estonia, Greece and Austria will take part in the meeting. Read the full press release here.

15/06/201830/01/2019

Today is the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Did you know that…

– Around 1 in 6 older people globally experienced some form of abuse in the past year.
– Rates of abuse may be higher for older people living in institutions than in the community.
– Elder abuse can lead to serious physical injuries and long-term psychological consequences.
– Elder abuse is predicted to increase as many countries are experiencing rapidly ageing populations.
– The global population of people aged 60 years and older will more than double, from 900 million in 2015 to about 2 billion in 2050.

Facts by the UN http://www.un.org/en/events/elderabuse/

Raising awareness of and increasing knowledge on elder abuse is a way to prevent it. It also encourages older people to speak up when their rights are violated. VoiVa Coop raises awareness of elder abuse and older people’s human rights through its EU projects (WHOSEFVA, TISOVA, SAFE).

#TISOVA #elderabuse #ProjectTISOVA #endGBV #endEA #endVAW #WorldElderAbuseDay #WHOSEFVA

13/06/2018

World Elder Abuse Day June 15th

In light of World Elder Abuse Day (WEAD) being on June 15th, we would like to take this week to raise awareness on this issue. Older women are particularly vulnerable to physical and psychological abuse. The Tisova Project aims to train professionals and volunteers at senior centres to provide elderly women survivors of violence with effective and sensible support.