Mary’s Meals bag landmark
MARY’S Meals have handed over their 500,000th backpack to a child in Malawi.
Delighted Lagia Navala, 13, a pupil at Ngabu Primary School, said: “I’m so happy.” A CREW of creative pensioners are proving you’re never too old to learn by turning their hand to filmmaking.
Eight first-time directors, aged from 79 to 92, have created six short films in which they discuss their lives, feelings and experiences.
The pensioners received training and equipment as part of a project aimed at improving mental and physical health among the elderly.
The films will be premiered at the Scottish Government’s Fire Starter Festival in Paisley today.
The pensioners worked on the movies with social enterprise Media Co-op and sent out a message that you don’t need to be sidelined from society when you’re old.
One of the filmmakers, Jim Anderson, 79, summed up how older people can sometimes feel about their place in society.
He said: “When you get to our age, you’re sort of pushed on the back burner – and there isnae any heat on.”
Joining Jim, from Paisley, on the project were May Kirk, 88, from Elderslie, 92-year-old Elizabeth McLean, from Ralston, Nessa McIntosh, 91, Sandy Reid, 82, Betty Garrity, 80 and Carol Kyle, 80, all from Paisley, and Norrie Mathieson, 80, from Erskine.
The films bring into focus issues that often affect pensioners, including worries about falls, ill-health and loneliness.
Project organiser Nicola Hanssen said she was delighted with the diversity, quality and scope of the films. She added: “It’s become more and more apparent that one of the things that prohibits people from taking part in clubs and services is the fear of going out, the fear of falling and the reality of that fear because it is sometimes treacherous going out.
“People have told us about not being offered the help they want when they really