Life is about to change for 68-year-old Evangeline Ganzon, as her son is about to leave for another country.
The physical separation would have been difficult for Nanay Vangie had she not known how to keep in touch with her loved ones—thankfully she does, with the help of Smart Millenniors program.
Smart’s “Millenniors” program—a play on the words “millennials” and “seniors”—aims to teach technology to the elderly. The second session, held in partnership with Adamson University, taught the senior citizens of Barangay 734 in Paco, Manila how to use Facebook Messenger, make video calls, and watch videos on Youtube.
Employee volunteers from Smart led the lecture, while students from Adamson University’s Computer Science department and Adamson’s Integrated Community Extension Services sat with the elders to provide one-on-one assistance.
“It made me happy to see them smile,” shared Toby dela Cruz, a Computer Science student from Adamson.
He added, “Some people say that they’re too old for these things—that these are for millennials only. That’s not true. They just got here; they can still learn. We all just learn at our own pace.”
Indeed, the lesson was initially confusing for Nanay Vangie. “The video call was hard at first,” she admitted. But thankfully, the young volunteers were patient and committed to teaching their old students.
“We really needed patience because our lolos and lolas are not like us, who could easily understand and absorb the things we were talking about,” said Dela Cruz. “We just needed to go back to the things they needed to remember, again and again.”
The hard work of volunteers was paid off when they saw how the information they taught can possibly enrich the life of senior citizens.
Christine Ferrer, a volunteer from Smart, was touched upon seeing how one participant reacted after activating Messenger. “I saw a grandmother add her granddaughter on Facebook and [sent a] message [to] her right away, ‘Gising ka na ba?’,” she related.
Ferrer also noted how happy the seniors were to be taught how to use Youtube. “I saw the utter joy of some elders while backtracking what they missed in their favorite teleseryes or basketball games on Youtube.”
Smart Community Partnerships senior manager Stephanie Orlino said the Millenniors program is a way the telecommunications company enables digital learning to be accessible to more people.
“I am glad we have this program,” Nanay Vangie enthused after the session. “I can use the things I learned today to call my son.”
