Did you know that 1 in 5 people over 50 don’t have children and by 2030, there will be 2 million people over 65 without children.
Ageing without Children (AWOC), a charity that aims to help people ageing without children live a later life free of the free fear of ageing alone and being without support, recently held their Annual Conference in Leeds. This is a topic under reported and under researched and they have produced an interesting report called “Our Voices – the experiences of people ageing without children” to raise its profile.
AWOC defines people ageing without children as people over the age of 50 without children in their lives either because they have never been parents or because their children have died, they are estranged from them or they live far away.
Our Voices details the experiences and thoughts of this previously invisible group of older people. This report offers more than thinking about who will provide support, help and care to those without children. People ageing without children say they feel invisible and marginalised – lacking a place in a family orientated society. AWOC explain that the report aims to give room for just a few of the stories of people ageing without children to be heard, and that it is time to start to hear more.
Here’s AWOC’s report, our-voices-3 AWOC which can also be downloaded on their website http://awoc.org/ or email ageingwithoutchildren@gmail.com