Why young people are renting rooms in a Helsinki care home | Kirstie Brewer
(The Guardian Finland)

In return for a cheap rent, Finnish 18- to 25-year-olds are befriending older people in a state-run care home and helping provide a range of social activitiesIt´s a sunny Thursday afternoon and residents of the Rudolf Seniors Home - Helsinki´s largest state care home - are eating raspberry swiss roll and having a spirited guitar singalong to some traditional Finnish tunes.Among the trestle tables and rocking chairs occupied by the elderly Finns in the common room is someone considerably younger. Eighteen-year-old Serafina Eljaala is one of three young people who live in the care home. In exchange for cheap rent she spends five hours a week socialising with its more traditional clientele.It has been very uplifting for the spirits - I´m excited when I get a visit and everyday life is not so boring Related: I lived with an older person in return for cheap rent, but my chores quickly grew | Nicola Slawson Continue reading...