Since its beginning, the Community of Sant'Egidio has been close to the world of the elderly. Born in 1972, this friendship has continued faithfully through the years and has become the way that brought us deeply into the extensive and complex reality of the elderly.
Each Community of Egidio, either in the North or South of the world, has a predilection for the elderly: it shares their anxieties, lives, and faith. This experience has been an education for the human maturation of the Community of Sant'Egidio. The elderly are special friends. Solidarity with the elderly has played a considerable role in the story of the Community. It was not because the elderly were the first, the valuable ones, but precisely because they were among the poorest.
Living at the side of the elderly all these years had made a legacy of experience and sensitivity grow. This legacy, in its freshness, has been put to the service of many to build a culture of solidarity and welcome towards the elderly.
Being at the side of the elderly, sustaining and helping them leads to a sense of life that demands not wasting one’s existence or squandering one’s energies and rather investing in humanity and solidarity. The elderly receive help from young people who support them physically but give much in love, friendship, and sense of life. It is a school of humanity.
