In Japan, where solitude is a growing problem, a service was born as unusual as precious: rent grandmothers. The idea, launched by the client partners company in 2011, responds to a double social need: to offer company and emotional support to those who feel alone and create job opportunities for women over 60.
The program is called OK! Obaachan (ok! Nonna) and involves elderly women in daily activities at customer homes: they cook, tidy up, listen, recommend and above all offer that maternal warmth that is sometimes missing. For many people, having a maternal figure next to it – even for a few hours – is an indispensable comfort.
A response to female marginalization
The Japanese labor market has historically left the elderly women on the margins, often excluded after marriage or relegated to precarious roles. For many of them, the only work option was to do the domestic cleaning. In this context, Client Partners had the intuition of enhancing those that were once seen as simple home skills, transforming them into requested and appreciated skills.
More than one job: a new purpose
For many participants, becoming a contract grandmother is much more than earning a salary (about $ 55 the hour): it is a way to feel useful, to create ties, to find a sense after a loss or a change of life. Some have found a new reason in this work to get up in the morning, after painful events such as the death of their pet.
In a country where about 30% of the population is more than 65 years old, initiatives like this represent true social innovations. The service is not limited to grandmothers: “aunts”, interpreters, tourist guides and even “friends” can also be rented. All figures that respond to the growing need for authentic relationships, often absent in modern life. And, in the case of grandmothers, it is a proof that age is not a limit, but a resource.
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