2018 was a special year for the whole Lithuania, marking one hundred years since the restoration of its statehood, just as it was a period of improvement and cohesive development for our Foundation. Counting our fifth year of operation, we continued to grow Sidabrinė linija (the Silver Line), our aim being to achieve that with the Lithuanian society growing older, more and more elderly people would feel needed, interesting, and important.

We are pleased that in 2018, Sidabrinė linija – our befriending and support help line for the elderly – became part of 1,526 persons’ life. The fact that 912 befriended couples used the line at the end of the year only further reinforces the idea of how important inclusion, conversation and friendship is in everyone’s life, and this is the biggest driving force behind our ambition to move forward.

2018 Operating Highlights

> Initiated by us, Vilnius – an Age-friendly City, a public commission at the Vilnius City Council chaired by Kristina Čiuželienė, a co-founder of the Foundation, has reached an important milestone by conducting an opinion poll and quality-of-life study for the elderly – the first of its kind in Vilnius. The recommendations from the study were presented to the Municipality Administration, and Vilnius was the first Baltic city to have been officially admitted to the World Health Organisation’s network of age-friendly cities.

> At the start of the year, 100 Years Together, a project brought to life in cooperation with photographer Monika Požerskytė, director Edita Karabaitė, and film production company Artbox, became a real star of the Vilnius Book Fair 2018 and the Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris 2018. The 100 Years Together documentary got audience choice award as the most favourite Lithuanian film.

> In 2018, we launched the project Learn and Volunteer! New Skills for Professional Development and Volunteer Work. Co-funded by the European Union structural funds, the project was initiated by Soros International House – a leading partner responsible for the project management, and general skills training, with our Foundation as a project partner taking care of organizing, coordinating voluntary work, as well as providing the appropriate training to volunteers.

> Encouraged by the positive feedback from the participants in the Learn and Volunteer! project and aiming to strengthen cooperation with our social partners, at the close of the year we took a first step in a new direction of activity by launching professional competence development training for social workers. The first training for the staff of Neringa and Vilnius canters of social services have been very well received.

> We had a very busy schedule of various events: we visited Alytus, Kelmė, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, Pasvalys, Plinkšės, Rietavas, Skuodas, Šalčininkai, Šiauliai, Širvintos, Ukmergė, Varėna, we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of Sidabrinė linija, we participated at the Western Union Foundation volunteer fair, we took part at the annual NGOs Christmas fair initiated by President Dalia Grybauskaitė, Coloured Gingerbread Day events, we taught young people from the Erasmus+ program how to connect with the older generation, among many other things.

To raise awareness of the importance of volunteer work and the positive effect it has on the public, we carried out a publicity campaign titled People need People. During the campaign, we invited the residents of a care home to the sea, shot films and took pictures there, and had a lot of fun together. The campaign has produced volunteer stories and a 27-part short film series (see below) that have been presented to the viewers and readers of our media partners at LRT and 15min.lt. A photo exhibition has been still travelling across various companies and organizations, decorating their office walls and bringing joy to the staff.

> We proceeded with the expansion of our operations and established a third regional office, this one in Panevėžys, the 5th largest city in the country. It will give us more flexibility while coordinating development in mid-Lithuania.

> The Archbishop Metropolitan of Vilnius Gintaras Grušas became patron of Sidabrinė linija.

> For their care of the lonely elderly people, the co-founders of the Foundation Kristina Čiuželienė and Marius Čiuželis were awarded by the Mayor of Vilnius Remigijus Šimašius with a statue of St. Christopher, the patron of the city of Vilnius and all the travellers – the city’s most prestigious award.

Sidabrinė linija (the Silver Line)

Pope Francis wished a lot of things to the people of Lithuania, when he made a state visit to our country in 2018. He spoke to the youth: ‘Do not forget the roots of your nation. Do not forget its past, its history. Talk to the elderly. Talking to old people is not boring; go, find them, and may they tell you about the joy, suffering, values of the nation.’

We go, we seek, and we talk. At the end of the year, the registered number of elderly people at Sidabrinė linija was 1,526, a 43 per cent increase compared to the end of 2017. As many as 10 towns and districts saw an increase by 100 per cent or more, including Pagėgiai (+200 per cent), Pasvalys (+171 per cent), Ignalina (+150 per cent), Širvintos (+125 per cent), Neringa, Pakruojis, Skuodas, Šilalė, and Varėna (+100 per cent each). There were no changes in the ranking of the top three cities by the number of callers: 257 in Vilnius, 241 in Kaunas, and 71 in Šiauliai.

In 2018, a total of 912 befriended couples had a massive 13,812 phone conversations, including 7,551 befriending conversations (up by 55 per cent compared to 2017) and 6,261 emotional support and assistance conversations on the 800 line. The total duration of the befriending conversations was 207,071 minutes (a 60 per cent increase compared to 2017), with the total duration of befriending conversations since the launch of Sidabrinė linija in June 2016 approaching 400,000 minutes. This once again proves, that Sidabrinė linija was necessary and long-awaited service in Lithuania, and the call statistics point to the undoubtful impact achieved – the reduced loneliness.

In 2018, we marked the 2nd anniversary of Sidabrinė linija. On that occasion, we invited our volunteers to the capital for a fun-filled, active, and adventurous celebration, which involved discovering exciting and strange Vilnius locations, giving the legs and the brain a workout, and spending some time together celebrating.

People need People

Seven stories, hundreds of minutes spent chatting and in silence, unexpected discoveries, new acquaintances and experiences, and that overwhelmingly good feeling when you know that somewhere there is someone who is waiting for you to call. These were our moods when, in fall, we launched #ŽmoguireikiaŽmogaus (People need People), a publicity campaign we used to spread the word about Sidabrinė linija and the effects of interaction, inviting volunteers to look for new old aged people to talk to, help them take their first befriending calls. In the series of articles that ran through December 2018 at the 15min.lt portal we introduced the readers to the volunteers and their stories, often quite personal in nature.

We launched the campaign by shooting an ad in Nida, which evolved into… a mini-series of 27 parts. Our characters were the residents of Senevita care home. Some of them had not seen the sea for as long as 30 years. We were very happy to fulfil their dreams of taking a breath of the sea air and even going for a swim.

The series of short videos was featured on the Lithuanian national television LRT, while the photo exhibition has been still travelling across various companies and organisations, decorating their office walls and bringing joy to the staff.

100 Years Together

In 2018, the Lithuanian state celebrated the 100th anniversary of its restoration. Today, it is a free and modern country, creating its unique history. A history that is being created daily by millions of its fellow countrymen. Some of them have been together for one hundred years.

With the project 100 Years Together, we aimed to convey the memories, experiences and life stories of the contemporaries of the restored Lithuania and their relatives through photographs and documentary images. The authentic stories of these centenarians reveal how the crucial events of the Lithuanian state changed the destinies of its people, and how we, the people of Lithuania, have changed with our country in the past hundred years.

The photo album was introduced at the Vilnius International Book Fair, and the photographs had been on display in different exhibition halls in Birštonas, Druskininkai, Dubingiai, Dusetos, Jurbarkas, Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Marijampolė, Mažeikiai, Molėtai, Neringa, Plungė, Prienai, Radviliškis, Raseiniai, Rietavas, Šakiai, Šilutė, Telšiai, Ukmergė, Varėna, Vilnius, Visaginas, and elsewhere, as well as at the Days of Baltic Cinema festival in Oslo.

The 100 Years Together documentary was featured as part of the Discoveries of the Year program at the Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris 2018 where it was critically acclaimed and elected the audience’s favourite Lithuanian film.

‘The film enthrals you with its simplicity. It has no pomp, no exalted narrative of Lithuania’s heroes. The characters in the film are ordinary people who live next to us, regarding life and remembering it as an unadorned reality,’ said Santa Lingevičiūtė, artistic director of the Vilniaus International Film Festival, editor of the Kinas magazine, and art critic.

Funding

In 2018, we raised a total of EUR 100,641 in sponsorship money: 11.6 per cent of this amount (much like in 2017) was donated by individuals, 45.7 per cent – by companies and organizations (up by 15 per cent from 2017), 42.7 per cent – by governmental and municipal institutions (up by 57 per cent from 2017). This is the largest amount of sponsorship we have ever received during a year. Individuals mainly donated by making direct transfers to the Foundation’s bank account, they have also used the donation platform aukok.lt and donated 2 per cent of their income tax paid; 3 municipalities granted support for the 100 Years Together project, 8 municipalities made a contribution to the further development of Sidabrinė linija. We have also launched several projects co-funded by the European Union structural funds, such as Learn and Volunteer! New Skills for Professional Development and Volunteer Work, a project done in association with Soros International House, as well as projects aimed at implementing the local development strategies of Varėna and Panevėžys local action groups.

Companies and organizations remain our main donors with their support amounting to nearly 2/3 of all sponsorship moneys the Foundation was granted since its inception. The remaining 33 per cent are spread between individuals and governmental bodies at a 30/70 ratio.

We are especially delighted by the returning sponsors – those who have granted their support multiple times. The number of donors with multiple donations in 2018 saw a 21 per cent increase compared to 2017, said donors accounting for 16 per cent of all of our sponsors (11 per cent in 2017). The most active sponsor made it 6 times!

We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of our sponsors!