iGAP (Inter-Generational Affinity Project) operates from the keypoint that it is a challenge to carve a meaningful role for older people and fully integrate them into our society. There is a great need to foster a society where older people are valued as contributing members and are actively engaged.
iGAP believes that one of the immediate tasks at hand to start integrating our elderly involves a paradigm shift on our part. People would have to change their mindset of the older person and the older person of himself or herself. Older persons should not be stereotyped as they are today.
iGAP’s philosophy is that youth should go beyond lending the poor and lonely elderly a helping hand. They should start to understand them first, to discover that behind those weathered bodies and faces lie possibly a wealth of knowledge and life experiences that the younger generation can learn, apply and benefit a great deal from. The inter-generational relationship is one that becomes synergistic, in which the older person provides the linkage from the current back to the past so that the younger person can then start building the bridge to the future.