Innovation: Wisdom Ripening

Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation

AAI Domain: Participation in society (volunteering, care giving to children, political participation, lifelong learning, social connectedness)

The World Health Organisation’s age friendly cities and communities programme that was launched in 2006 is a global initiative that recognises the growing need to change how we live in order to better manage ageing populations. The WHO age-friendly city network covers approximately 113 million people living in 287 cities and communities from Amsterdam to New York to Zaragoza covering many parts of the world. From small communities with populations in the thousands to global cities with millions of people living in densely populated urban environments there is a global context for local activities and mutual learning to better meet the needs of older people.

Wisdom Ripening is a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation created by Gulnara Minnigaleeva and her mother Zakira to promote the interests of older people in the town of Tuymazy in the Republic of Bashkortostan in the Russian Federation. Wisdom Ripening is based in Tuymazy, a city of about 100,000 people that was largely built in the 1960s Soviet period and has 13% of the population over the age of 65 years. The organisation started by campaigning and lobbying to make the city more age-friendly and liveable for older people and all groups and found a positive response from local authorities.

The focus of activities has been on transport costs that limit opportunities for older people to fully participate in the community, increasing employment opportunities and improving access to health care services. They look to work closely with the city and regional administration and are part of a larger alliance of organisations for older people across the Republic and the Russian Federation. It has attracted several hundred members who are active volunteers across a range of areas and projects with partnerships with the local television station, local college and the University of the Third Age.

The municipality of Tuymazy was the first Russian city in the WHO age-friendly cities and community network and in partnership with the Republic’s Ministry of Labour and Social Protection the age-friendly approach has been adopted in 20 municipalities across the Republic with Wisdom Ripening represented on the regional steering committee.

Wisdom Ripening has developed a number of projects aimed at improving the well-being of older people with the general age-friendly city framework. A Presidential grant in 2010 enabled the development of the Grannies for Grandchildren project that mobilised older women to undertake a two-month course on pedagogy and psychology in order to work with disadvantaged children twice a week. Although the grant funding ended after a fixed period of time the course and project continues to operate on a voluntary basis with funding from other sources.

Another project that has been successfully developed is the Television 50+ programme that has older people taking classes in journalism and TV production in order to make a programme for older people that airs twice a month. Wisdom Ripening facilitated a world café style seminar in 2014 on further developing the age-friendly profile of Tuymazy and continues to work for this across the city, region and republic.

Wisdom Ripening website