Volunteer: Pamela Jay-Paralikis
Age: 63
Program Site: Lima, Peru
Year: 2000
Occupation: Founder of Adopt-A-Grandparent
Peru’s Elderly ‘Took My Heart’
Taking Volunteering to New Levels
Variety has spiced up Pamela Jay-Paralikis’s working years with a range of careers from art teacher to political speechwriter to automation consultant for insurance companies. But her true life’s calling came in one shining moment.
It happened in 2000, when she worked as a Cross-Cultural Solutions volunteer in Los Martincitos, a program for the underserved elderly community in Villa El Salvador, a shantytown just outside of Lima, Peru.
“On the second day I was there, instead of the usual prayer before meals, the participants each stood up and said what they were grateful for,” Pamela said. “They were thanking God for the air, the grass, their friends. They had so little in the way of material things, but they were grateful for everything God had given them.
“They took my heart.”
While Pamela’s CCS assignment had her leading exercise, chatting with participants, shining shoes, painting fingernails, giving shaves and playing games the two days a week the program was open, she felt she could do more.
When she returned to her home in Florida, she immediately set to work filing the paperwork to establish a charitable organization known as Adopt a Grandparent Inc. (Adopta un Abuelito) for the purpose of raising funds for Los Martincitos.
While the paperwork was being processed, she made more volunteering trips to Peru as well as Costa Rica and Thailand.
By late 2003, Pamela had built a house in Peru and lived there part-time. Adopt a Grandparent Inc. was official, and she had assembled an eight-member board consisting of former Los Martincitos volunteers from Peru, the United States and England. Pamela became the full-time staff, working with the elderly participants alongside the officials of the Peruvian charity and helping to coordinate volunteer efforts.
The contribution of a generous donor allowed Los Martincitos to expand the days of operation to three per week. On the off-days, Pamela would take services to Villa El Salvador’s shut-ins.
In recent years, this tireless advocate for the world’s elderly has had to limit her travel due to her own health, but the work of Adopt a Grandparent is continuing — and growing — under the leadership of Suzie Taylor, also a CCS Peru volunteer. She has served as an Adopt a Grandparent board member, managing director and chief officer of operations.
Participation in Los Martincitos has grown from the 50 people who came when Pamela first began to 145 — and there is a long waiting list.
While she would like to do more to start similar programs for the elderly and children around the world — “anywhere there’s not a safety net” — Pamela is happy with the Adopt a Grandparent’s growing impact.
