Intergenerational Solidarity Festival OKej was first organised in 2013 by Gerontological Centre Belgrade. The Festival was inspired by the 1973 action “Grandmas and grandpas for all their grandchildren” that saw the first clubs for older people starting to appear, and the goal of the Festival is to connect people of different generations, cultures and organisations and help them share good practices. The Festival’s programme is modular and is being implemented through partnerships with public and civil sector.

This year, for the fifth time, the Festival was opened on 23 April in the crypt of the St. Sava Temple in Belgrade, and it programme was based on the shared principles of the National Strategy on Ageing and the National Strategy on Youth, promotion and development of intergenerational solidarity and encouragement of intergenerational cooperation and dialogue. During the first day of the festival, awards were given to special contributions to people and institutions working on ageing and one of them, for support to lifelong learning and active ageing was given to the Red Cross of Serbia expert Natasa Todorovic, member of the Government’s Council for Improving Intergenerational Cooperation and Solidarity. The award was given to Ms. Todorovic for her years of theoretical work and practical engagement in the civil sector on creation of normative and functional framework free of age discrimination and examples of good practice of young volunteers of the Red Cross being included in the activities developing tolerant intergenerational communication.

Throughout the three festival days, different intergenerational activities were organised: a musical concert, an IT contest, a poster exhibition PLAKArT, traditional Serbian dance workshop, team Ludo tournament, urban orientation, basketball match for all generations and others. Also there were “encounter zones” created to facilitate younger and older generations meeting and having different forms of cooperation discussions and sharing experience and thoughts.