Intergenerational Bonding prog held at Bethel Children’s Home

Morung Express News
Tuensang | February 19

An ‘Intergenerational Bonding’ programme was held at the Bethel Children’s Home, Tuensang on Thursday. The programme, organised by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Nagaland, was aimed to build bonding and connect younger and older generations through mutual respect, emotional support and reduced ageism. 

During the programme, various activities were suggested and conducted to strengthen ties between the two generations. These included storytelling sessions by elderly participants, interactive engagements, children’s performances, plantation drives with the elderly and other innovative initiatives. 

Ideas such as arts and crafts, gardening, storytelling and oral history sessions, games and puzzles were also shared as effective means of fostering meaningful connections.

Addressing the gathering, Yimto, GB, encouraged the children of Bethel Children’s Home to live faithfully and respect elderly people, and to remain focused on their studies to build a secure future. He reminded them of the importance of honouring elders as they would their own grandparents.

The vote of thanks was delivered by R Throngji, Superintendent of the Children’s Home. He cited Leviticus 19:32, which calls on people to “stand up before the grey head and honour the face of an older man,” and 1 Timothy 5:1-2, which urges believers not to speak harshly to an older man but to appeal to him as a father, and to treat older women as mothers.

The programme concluded with an exchange of prayers, where the elderly men and women prayed for the children, and the children in turn prayed for the good health and long life of the elders. 

Gifts were distributed to the elderly participants, followed by a fellowship lunch shared together as a mark of intergenerational unity. Fruit saplings were also planted in the children’s home garden as a lasting symbol of the bond observed during the event.