News

Caritas Coimbra participated as a speaker at the Fórum Solidão (Solitude Forum) – Olhar, Capacitar e Transformar (Look, Empower, Transform), in Panel I of debate, with the Theme Can technology connect people?. The event took place on October 13, at the Colégio de S. Gonçalo in Amarante.

In the panel, the theme of isolation and loneliness in the general population was discussed. In the case of Cáritas Coimbra, the GrowMeUp project was presented. This is a project co-financed by the European Union, under the Horizon 2020 funding program, whose main objective is to improve and test an innovative robot, GrowMu, aimed at supporting people over 65 in the activities. It involves eight partners from six different countries, led by the University of Coimbra (in addition to UC and Caritas Coimbra, the University of Geneva, Zuyderland, the University of Cyprus, PAL Robotics, ProBayes and Citard IT Services).

The panel discussed how technologies can leverage people’s connections and how the events generated around the development of technologies enhance interpersonal relationships. Flávia Rodrigues, Public Relations of the Innovation Department, shared some perspectives and experiences about GrowMeUp and other projects developed in Caritas de Coimbra.

The main objective of this forum was the sharing of good practices in the fight against loneliness and social isolation.