China's Age Bank

[pegkerr]

Here's a really excellent and elegantly simple idea being put to good use in China: Volunteers log time with the elderly, so they can in turn get care as they age. This reminds me of my earlier post here where I asked people to post comments passing along ideas that made the world a better place.

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that will shift the current trend to abandon daughters to the orphanage system? Part of the reason for that is because sons are the ones expected to care for elderly parents; daughters move away to live with the husband's family (and care for HIS parents) so if a family has a girl, they have no one to care for them in their old age. In China's system, that's very important, so that's one of the reasons why boys are valued so highly. If the elderly can start to find care from other people, perhaps they will start to keep their daughters?