Goa, Panaji: Our image of senior living is always all about illness, immobility, disability and suffering. We usually tend to make our senior parents/grandparents feel comfortable at home, buy them smart devices, provide them with health monitors, memberships of hospitals and healthcare service. But has anyone ever thought if that is all that they need?Therefore, to empower their retired lives and ignite their energies in action, contribution and celebration, Sevarat Healthcare and Nursing Private Limited, a dedicated senior care service providing organization, organized a first of its kind initiative in the world and set a World Record by creating the largest gathering of over 436 senior citizens performing a dance at Indoor Stadium, Peddem, Mapusa-Goa, on occasion of World Senior Citizens Day, on 21st August, 2022. Represented in word, action and spirit with the slogan ‘Time of Your Life’, this opportunity was open for anyone above the age of 60 years from across the world. Being a simple folk-dance, the choreography was performed even by those with minor surgeries. Sevarat not only created a healthy social environment but also arranged transportation to bring senior citizens to the venue and drop them back to their homes. Speaking on the occasion Ms. Rohini Gonsalves, Founder of Sevarat, expressed; ” This year we created history by setting a World Record for the single largest congregation of seniors ever in any part of the world and a record for the largest choreographed dance performance. Our intention of investing time, effort and resources in this non-profit initiative was to drive home the pressing need for all of us to look at ways in which we can cause more engaging activities for our elderly. We at Sevarat, feel proud to have them all dance to a Goan folk clad in Goan traditional costumes, representing Goan culture, as we believe that the elderly not only need financial and medical aid, but they also need companionship, social interactions, opportunities to learn new things, ways to be self-expressed and most importantly find happiness and it is our responsibility to create more such avenues of fun and celebration for the elders. With these thoughts our event helped us to raise awareness on the challenges faced by senior citizens and the urgent need to change the mindsets of the community towards elders and their care.” With such a historical event, Sevarat has definitely brought a vigor in the hearts of senior citizens who had become withdrawn and stifled due to their confinement during the last two years of the pandemic. By growing, fostering and creating a community of support systems for senior citizens, it became a much-talked about, world-record-setting,‘paradigm-shift’ event.
