Social awareness bingo for seniors, conducted
Around 800 of the Summer Capital’s senior citizens gathered at the Baguio Convention and Cultural Center, Dec. 9, for the Social Awareness Bingo, a biannual event for elders, conducted by the City Social Welfare Development Office (CSWDO) with partners from the private sector.
CSWDO head Liza M. Bulayungan said the event aims to bring local seniors closer together, allowing them to engage more with their respective communities and encourage socialization.
The event is the fourth such iteration of the social bingo, having started in 2022, and was initiated by Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
It has since then been institutionalized and held biannually, as the CSWDO bolstered its efforts to ramp up socializing activities among senior residents and amplify community camaraderie, Bulayunga said.
“The purpose of this activity is for our senior citizens to have time to socialize, to go out of their houses and mingle with their co-senior citizens in the city of Baguio,” she stressed, adding that the activity is held every June and December of each year.
More than the prizes, Bulayungan pointed out that the seniors she interviewed professed how enjoyable the social bingo event was.
“We’re happy that they are looking forward talaga, tinatanong nila kung kailan ulit, mga ganyan, so some of them are not after the prizes, they are just after the bonding, fellowship with their co-senior citizens, na-memeet nila ‘yung mga former classmate nila, mga former officemate nila, mga kasama sa barangay– nagpapasaya sa kanila ito,” she said.
She said that one of the motivations for starting this event, apart from increased socialization between seniors, is to combat dementia, a common illness of the elderly.
The CSWDO hopes that increasing social interactions through events like this will help seniors to stay active and maintain a fruitful social life.
Bulayungan said that apart from social bingo, the CSWDO also has other events for senior citizens every quarter of the year, including trainings by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to improve seniors’ computer literacy, swimming lessons, art contests, among others.
She encourages seniors to check out the Baguio City Public Information Office Facebook page often and coordinate with their local barangay authorities in order to participate in upcoming activities. – Kemm Olarte, PIO-SLU Intern / Gaby Keith
