Care & Travel
Care & Travel is a student initiative that brings young and old together.
In a nursing home, young travellers give their time to the residents, are provided with food and accommodation and can explore a new city at the same time.
About Care & Travel
Target group(s)
Who can participate?
Travelers who...
... like to spend time with old people
... want to broaden their horizons
... want to do good
Founding year
Paid staff
Volunteers
Funding
nonprofit student organization
Objectives
All that is important to us is that you are interested in intergenerational exchange, that you want to know what older generations think about life, that you like to play games or sit together with them ... and that you are ready to embark on an adventure.
Your support helps
A traveler's experience:
"I was greeted extremely friendly and was allowed to move into my room tired after the long journey. Or rather my small apartment, because like the inhabitants I had a small bathroom, a television with armchair and a kitchenette, with which I could conjure up culinary delights... if I was as well versed in the art of cooking as the grannies and grandpas who shared my new home.
Instead, I was probably one of the most highly regarded guests at the home's restaurant.
This served as a meeting place for the residents to chat over lunch and play fun games over coffee. Equipped with a grand piano, it also offered me the possibility to conjure a little smile on the faces of the kitchen staff and the inhabitants, who had welcomed me so affectionately, through melodies.
My most beautiful encounters also started in this enchanting restaurant.
Already on my first morning an old lady with a warm smile sat down at my breakfast table, she grew very close to my heart during the week. We talked about our respective childhoods, my journey, her family, and with each shared story the bond of our friendship grew. One of the most beautiful moments of my trip was when, on my last day, I was able to relive some of her most beautiful memories through her stories and a picture album, and see the joy that shone in her nostalgic eyes.
But the inhabitants did not only let me participate in joyful events: An old German teacher described to me in lyrical art the horrors of war captivity in Russia, the exciting escape from the GDR, and drove me through an emotional roller coaster with stories of his found and lost love.
Away from the nursing home, I explored the Lüneburg Heath on a hike, found a small lake, visited the beautiful Hundertwasser train station in Uelzen."