This coming April, two of WorldU3As Steering Group will attend this UN Working Group meeting in New York. Moira Allan will attend on behalf of the Pass It On Network, and Thomas Kuan on behalf of U 3rd Age Singapore and the Asia Pacific Alliance.

The University of the Third Age is not normally involved in 'advocacy' -- its main aim being to encourage lifelong activity and learning, but this February Forum is an opportunity to learn from Moira and Thomas why this meeting is important and what it hopes will be the outcome. For more details click here>>>

Report by Mousumi Gupta.
"On 11th January an intergeneration sports was held at BA Park, Saltlake, Kolkata where members of Thikana and their senior citizen wing NABA ANANDE JAGO took part along with the students of the playschool "Rising Sun". The age of the participants were from 2 to 95 years.

Senior citizens participated in track and field running events themselves and also with the kids, which was an awesome experience.

This kind of intergeneration sports is the first kind of event organised in Kolkata".

Prof François Vellas participated in meetings in Jinan and Yantai, Shandong Province on next World Senior Tourism Congress 2020. This third congress will bring together U3As from the six continents to discuss on Seniors Study Tour dedicated on Culture and Education for life. A specific workshop will be organised with UNESCO and the Institute of Responsible Tourism in Yantai, China.

OFFICIAL NOTICE recieved from WSTC : Due to Coronavirus epidemic, the third World Senior Tourism Congress will be postponed. New Dates will be issued later according to the situation

INFORMATION OFFICIELLE reçu du WSTC : A la suite de l'épidémie du Coronavirus, la date du troisième Congrès Mondial du Tourisme des Séniors est déplacée. Une autre date sera précisée ultérieurement en fonction de la situation

An international conference of the International Association of UTAs (AIUTA) will take place in Sherbrooke, Quebec under the theme "UTAs at the digital age: Network, Innovate and Learn". The conference will take place on Friday, May 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cultural Centre of the University of Sherbrooke and will welcome the Board of Directors and associate members of AIUTA / IAUTA, and about 125 volunteers from the 29 university branches which ensure throughout Quebec the organization and design of their respective programs. Simultaneous French/English translation of the presentations will be available. Full details may be seen here>>> and the draft programmme is here>>>

We will also give access to those who cannot be present on site, to a live webcast of certain presentations of the conference in order to allow as many people as possible to benefit from this content. For any enquiry please contact uta.evenement@usherbrooke.ca

At the invitation of J.R. Gupta, President of Delhi assembly ISU3A, Professor Francois Vellas, International Assoc. Universities of the Third Age (AIUTA) president spoke at New Delhi U3A elderly assembly on AIUTA cooperation with India and the world.

President J.R Gupta is Executive Chairperson of ISU3A - Indian Society of Universities of Third Age. AIUTA will develop new cooperation with India U3A of lifelong learning program and senior study tour with WSTC.

On the invitation of Caroline Phelan, Senior Manager Europe Visit Britain / Visit England, Prof François Vellas, AIUTA President, had a meeting with European Associations Presidents on Health and Elderly.

They had visits in Birrmingham, Wolverhampton and Black County on senior study tours and congress.

Wolverhampton City Council will host AIUTA events and is considering to participate to next WSTC 2020.

In Finland support for frail elders is made possible via video-conferencing with ZOOM or SKYPE. Reprint from The Economist January 11th 2020
"In an office building on the outskirts of Helsinki, a chatty social worker is meeting six elderly people from around town (or lunch—via tablets propped on their kitchen tables. For the next half-hour she talks to them about their day and reminds them to have something to drink, because dehydration is particularly dangerous (or older people (making them more prone to falls, among other things). Glasses of milk and water are duly raised. The virtual lunch group is part of Helsinki's remote-care programme for its elderly. While many countries with bulging elderly populations are building new care homes, Finland is not planning to do so and, instead, is looking after people in their own homes for longer—even those with dementia who live alone".
The full article (in jpg format) may be seen here>>>

The U3A movement in India and several other asian countries is growing fast. So fast that WorldU3A is bringing back an earlier newsletter that ran for over a year, then stopped due to lack of input. The current issue under the banner 'U3A ASIA POST' has been launched and you can see it here>>>