All his life, my father inspired me.
With that in mind and with a hope that at least few elderly will resonate with a call to share their stories, I established Dragan Award that aims to promote active aging of elderly.
People think in stories and our whole history is based on story telling. It was my very personal and intimate wish and very genuine attempt to show to elderly that someone wants to hear their voices and learn from their stories.
In the last five years of conducing annual Dragan Award in Europe (Serbia specifically), that small wish in so many beautiful ways exceeded my wildest hopes and expectations. I was wholeheartedly ‘adopted’ by several sets of grandparents who were inspired by the award and who keep showing me how to live life to the fullest.
Together with many committed volunteers we created core community of elderly who became more visible both in their families and their communities. Many elderly that also confidently and proudly speak to media about their activities and their very rich future life plans.
By doing so they slowly started to shift public perception from elderly being seen as a burden and associated with all sorts of aging sicknesses to elderly being seen as a valuable societal resource and associated with positive attitude and pro-activity.
It is our great wish that the Jasmina Award riches out to as many elderly in Malaysia as possible and to inspire them to continue with storytelling.
If we don’t hear stories of our elderly they will be lost not just to us, our families and communities but to our history in making.