3rd and 4th year ESO students from Ripollès act as teachers for older people from Camprodon. It is the ‘We help you’ program, one of the optional community action activities at the IES Germans Vila Riera.
They teach them how to use mobile phones and other technologies such as tablets. “I really like stirring and I want to know how it goes,” explains Maria Isern, one of the students. She claims the desire that her generation has to learn and is “delighted” with the initiative. It is the second year that she has participated.
Among the teachers is Aster, who also values ??being able to share the knowledge they have. “We can use what we know to help them,” she says. Posting photos, making a digital album or checking the My Health app are some of the tasks they have learned.
A classroom where young people act as teachers and adults act as students. It is the scene that can be seen during the ‘We help you’ program, an initiative of the Fundació Comunitària de la Vall de Camprodon that began last year as a pilot test and that has been repeated this year due to the good reception it will have. The objective is to help older people in the management of new technologies and, in turn, create links between them.
Classes are held once a week – they last an hour and a half – and are used to ask your questions.
Alfred Gavira who is paired with Aster Paneque. “I had doubts about Instagram and Tik Tok and he solved it for me, he is a genius,” says the first. He admits that, when he is at home, he “starts picking here and there” and eventually makes a mess.
“I had removed an app that he now told me I should have; “Now I understand him, which I didn’t before,” she adds.
For his part, his teacher, Aster, feels that it is time “well spent”: “We are young and we know a lot about the world of technology and since they don’t know as much, we can take advantage of it to help them.” He believes that this is a good initiative that also allows young people and adults to share some time together.
Student Maria Isern is clear: “We want to learn.” Thanks to the help of Estel Barri, she is her niece. She has learned how to answer an email, make a photo album, and add music to an Instagram post. “I really like stirring and I want to know how it goes and if they teach you, is it worth it,” she says. Her teacher, Estel, explains that for young people they are “basic things” that they have learned over time, but they believe that, for older people, it can be difficult. “I like it because I can teach them what I have learned,” she adds.
Other students, like Antonia Rous, admit that sometimes she asks the same question after a few days why she has forgotten, such as making a digital photo album. She also greatly values ??being taught to “silence things that do not serve you and that overwhelm you.” But what she appreciates most is the “confidence” that her teacher, Aniol Collboni, conveys to her: “When I see something I don’t know how to do (at home), I close my phone and leave it; On the other hand, like this, I gain more confidence.
At his side is Aniol, who assures that “helping other people is always good.” Last year he participated in the pilot test and this year he did not hesitate to repeat.
One of the members of the Vall de Camprodon Community Foundation Maria Rosa Güell highlights that the program is being “a success.” “Older people don’t know enough,” she remarks, and having the help of young people is a good community work tool to build bridges between these two generations.
