Kira Gawenus: “Together this intergenerational partnership between the youth and elders has the power to turn the Convention [for the Rights of Older Persons] into a reality – to create a legacy of rights and respect for many generations to

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Welcome.

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This is Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, your host for the Wisdom at Work podcast.

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Elder Women, older Women and Grandmothers on the Move.

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What follows is a special and exciting 10-part series.

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Have you ever thought about how human rights plays an essential and meaningful role in our older age?

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Well, you're in the right place.

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You're listening to Age with Rights and Dignity 10 interviews in which we will hear from older and younger advocates from different corners of the world.

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These committed champions will share with us why they care about the rights of older persons and what they are doing to help bring a new United Nations Convention on the Rights of Older Persons into being, for you and for me, no matter how old we are.

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Now Join the movement and raise your voice.

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Go to the Age Noble Human Rights Day 2024 blog to find out more that is A-G-E-K-N-O-W-B-L-E dot com and sign the global petition for the UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons.

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I'm also excited to introduce you to two wonderful guest interviewers, younger women who are committed to these issues and will be joining me in this series to interview some of our esteemed guests Faith Young and Kira Goenis.

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Thank you for joining us, enjoy this special initiative and my thanks to Margaret Young, the founder of Age Noble for bringing this opportunity to us to hear from these important guests who promote the human rights and the dignity of older persons the world over for this interview.

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What, in your lived experience or your education has led you to get involved in promoting the rights and now amplifying the voices of older people?

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Well, my grandmother helped raise me.

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I was very fortunate to live with her and she was so important to me when I was young she still is.

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I adore her completely.

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So, yeah, being raised partially by her was a foundational experience in how I began to navigate the world.

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So I always felt very lucky to have my grandmother as a central figure in my life, to learn from her experiences and stories and wisdom.

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But I think as I got a little bit older I learned just how much older adults are able to enrich their families and communities.

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So I'd say that that early bond really ignited this passion in working with older people for me.

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When I was 19, I started volunteering at long-term care and worked in various sectors of housing foundations all through my early 20s.

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So those experiences really deepened my understanding of the challenges that older adults actually face, anywhere from systemic ageism to unmet mental health needs.

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So that is what inspired me to pursue psychology and then gerontology.

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So advocating for older adults and their rights and mental health it's very personal and also trying to create a society that's not afraid of aging, so that you don't feel discarded.

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My grandmother's influence and the influence of many other grandmothers have definitely shaped not just my career path advocacy, but truly who I am as a woman.

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That really resonates for me, because that's my experience too, when I'm working with and talking to and learning from grandmothers and older women in particular.

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I hear a lot about their commitment to intergenerational work, but I think it's really interesting to hear from younger women like you.

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What does it mean to you and why do you think it's important?

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I think that intergenerational work and connection is incredibly important because it's about building meaningful connections between youth and elders where their knowledge and values and experience can flow both ways.

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So there is an important exchange, I think, that takes place in order to progress.

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I think for youth, this intergenerational solidarity offers the chance to learn from experience, to gain wisdom and context and perspective that you just simply cannot have at the age that you're in.

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You know the older people are a lifeline to the past and learning from them is incredibly valuable, from understanding historical movements, civil rights, environmental advocacy, to just personal stories of their lives.

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And I think for older people too, working with younger generations I think is equally empowering for them, because when you're given a space where you can share and feel heard by youth, I think you can rest assured in the sense that your legacy will be carried forward.

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Intergenerational collaboration is essential because, at the end of the day, it really reminds you that you're a part of a continuum.

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When youth bring fresh ideas and older people bring experience and knowledge, there's this wonderful synergy that's created that really is a driver for meaningful change.

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Beautifully said.

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I did want to ask you, as a young woman in particular, what are your thoughts about gender and aging.

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Gender and aging.

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It's so complex, it's such a unique intersection for younger and older women.

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But I think for older women they are prone to face this double discrimination of ageism and sexism that often increase their vulnerabilities.

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So I think that having a convention for the rights of older people will be essential to address these inequalities, but I think for older women it would more importantly kind of affirm their value and contributions to society while also challenging these harmful stereotypes, that kind of put these frameworks into action.

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Ultimately, as a young person looking up to older women, I think that I'm inspired mostly by their resilience and their leadership and just the true depth of their lived experiences.

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In my work and also in these interviews, and I've heard many stories of older women who have faced immense challenges and yet they continue to rise as advocates and change makers.

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Many of them spent their lives navigating systems that were simply not designed for them.

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Convention, I think, would also give them the protection that they need, but it would also amplify their voices on a global scale.

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So I definitely look up to them as role models.

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Makes a lot of sense and it's a wonderful way of framing it.

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I thought it would be really interesting to hear from you if it was something that really struck you in the interviews you've been involved with or other experiences you've had working with older people, something that's really stood out for you and that stays with you.

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Well, something that continues to strike me and Moira kind of touched on it, uh, but it's how life gets better with age.

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This completely checked my own bias and it's shifted how I perceive aging, because it's so counterintuitive to what society says.

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You know you, when you you're declining, you're at a loss.

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Moira talked about co-founding the Pass it On Network when she was in her 60s and there's something so exciting that comes with knowing that there's still so much more out there for you to discover in yourself.

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So, yeah, aging as a liberating process is striking to me.

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This self-assurance and authenticity really is an invaluable gift that really seems to only come with aging.

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Now that the working group at the UN is finished and that decade-plus process has now come to an end, I guess I'd like to ask you two things what do you see happening to bring it to fruition, and what would you say to young people like yourself about the importance of engaging in this process and a meaningful role that younger people can have in being involved in bringing the convention to fruition?

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I think that the convention.

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It's so important Obviously we know that and its potential to transform how society can truly value and treat older adults.

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My interview with Catherine we talked about addressing neglect and financial insecurity discrimination.

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So the convention is key to have this legally binding framework that will hold governments, organizations, institutions accountable for protecting older people and their dignity and rights.

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But I do believe that it's more than just law.

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It's also a cultural statement.

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I believe that older adults matter and that their contributions to society are essential and that aging is a stage of life that is filled with strength and wisdom.

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So I think that for younger people, it's key.

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You're fighting for your own future.

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Aging is a universal experience, one that you'd be lucky to be a part of.

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So, bringing this to fruition, I think that greater advocacy from younger generations is essential essentials.

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So, yeah, I'd say that, for young people, advocating for the rights of older persons is truly about shaping a better future for us all.

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To bring it back to older people as well I think their stories and their voices are the heart of this movement.

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Stories and advocacy are the most powerful tools that we have to show the world why a convention is necessary.

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So having younger people involved isn't just about adding this kind of fresh new energy.

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It's about building bridges and filling gaps between these generations to ensure that the torch that they've carried so far down the line continues.

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So I think that together, this intergenerational partnership between the youth and elders has the power to turn the convention into a reality, to create a legacy of rights and respect for many generations to come.

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That's a perfect rallying cry.

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Thank you so much, carol, for your contribution to this project, but also the contribution that I know you'll continue to make, and I'm sure that we'll be hearing more from you on this and more around solidarity work in the future.

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I appreciate it.

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Thank you so much.