Beatrice’s project in Belgium – “Mon papy perce neige”

« The first day began with a presentation tour during which each participant chose, among the many images of flowers on the ground, the one that reminded them of a particular moment in their life and then shared it with the group together with their name.

Subsequently, each child, after training at school, read to everyone a page from the book that gives the project its name, “Mon papy perce neige“.

To carry out the creative activities, the participants were divided into small groups of three and in each group there were two children and an elderly person. To create groups, each participant fished an image of a flower from a bowl and those who found the same image became a group.

Once the groups had been created, we moved on to the creation of the creative activity during which in each group one child drew flowers and the other, placing a plexiglass child in front of the face of the elderly person present in their group, drew the outline of the person’s face.  Subsequently this person traced the outline of the hands of the two children present in his group, writing 5 of their characteristics that he had to be able to understand by trying to ask them questions.

During the second meeting, however, we tried to recreate the same groups as the first meeting and then the participants glued the hands and flowers drawn during the last meeting onto a poster, which represented a garden.

After, each participant received a camera and a piece of paper on which they could draw a flower that reminded them of a particular moment in their life, write the names of the group members using newspaper clippings and finally each group took a photo with a photo booth and an instant camera, thus receiving a photo that can be glued onto the paper film.

The day ended with the sharing of feedback on how the two meetings took place and with the delivery of some sunflower seeds to plant at home and take care of in memory of these moments spent together.

The community benefited from raising awareness on the importance of developing activities that promote intergenerationality as an exchange of experiences between children and the elderly with the aim of enriching their life skills. It also allowed us to raise awareness in a delicate way on the topic of Alzheimer’s as the book “Mon papy perce-neige” tells a story of a little girl and her grandfather who had this very disease.

My organizations benefit from the project in two different ways. As regards “Maison de la culture”, this project has given greater visibility to the show “J’ai enlevé Mamie” which will be performed next November and which deals with the theme of memories.

Furthermore, the project is part of the PECA path (Cultural and Artistic Training Path) whose objectives are to allow each student to access cultural life, to encounter works, artists and cultural practices, to frequent cultural places, but also to acquire knowledge and skills, with a view to developing critical thinking and expression personnel, which represents one of the points of the MCFA mission.

For this reason, the decision was made to propose the “Mon papy perce-neige” project again in November following the viewing of the show “J’ai enlevé Mamie” but this time the actors of the performance will also be involved.

Even as regards the library, the project falls within the PECA framework, and has also allowed the library to be known by a greater number of people who, during the project, have experienced a different and pleasant way of reading a book. »