Siblings- ‘It is so easy to bring a smile to these seniors and really alleviate their loneliness’
With video messages and care packages, isolated seniors are feeling a little less lonely thanks to Hita and Didit Gupta.
The following written content by Daniella Genovese
A 16-year-old high school student and her 10-year-old brother are helping isolated senior citizens around the world combat their loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic through care packages and personalized video messages.
Since March, Hita and Didit Gupta have been sending care packages, each with a handwritten note, to retirement homes in Pennsylvania through their nonprofit, Brighten A Day.
Hita Gupta got the idea after a retirement home where she had been volunteering told her that she wouldn’t be able to visit the center for the foreseeable future in order to keep the residents, who had been deemed an at-risk population, safe.
“That’s what got me thinking about what I could do to help seniors fight isolation because they weren’t allowed to see any family or friends,” Hita Gupta told Fox News.
Loneliness has always been such a problem, especially for older people, she said.
“During a pandemic, the biggest concern in any senior living community is social isolation,” Brandi Barksdale, the director of life enrichment at Artis Senior Living of Huntingdon Valley in Pennsylvania, told Fox News.
As word spread about what the siblings were doing, “more people wanted to pitch in,” Hita Gupta said. She quickly became “overwhelmed” with the amount of support she was receiving.
Now, with the help of volunteers in countries from Canada to Australia, Brighten A Day is sending packages, cards and pre-recorded video messages to droves of senior citizens.
“It is so easy to bring a smile to these seniors and really alleviate their loneliness,” she said, adding that many of the messages brought residents to tears.
The siblings also started coordinating video and telephone calls between volunteers and seniors after multiple facilities said that an actual conversation would boost residents’ morale tremendously.
Barksdale said Artis Senior Living’s residents receive “words of encouragement from volunteers around the country.”
“Our residents have been happier and more engaged since we have partnered with Brighten A Day,” Barksdale said. “They have something to look forward to.” Read more from Fox News.
Follow other related unbiased news stories from News Without Politics
