Domna Michailidou: “Digital empowerment is changing the everyday life of the elderly”

The minister, who had visited the Piraeus KAPI at the start of the programme, returned to see the progress of the courses in practice, chatting with the elderly beneficiaries and instructors about the skills they have acquired, the difficulties they are overcoming and how familiarity with technology is beginning to make their daily lives easier.

Michailidou systematically monitors the progress of the programme in the places where it is implemented to see first-hand how the courses are progressing, what needs are being highlighted and how digital education is responding to the everyday lives of the elderly.

The All Digital programme for Digital Education and Empowerment of Older People and People with Disabilities was designed to respond to a new form of inequality: Digital. It aims to equip older people and people with disabilities with basic digital skills so that they can use digital services more safely and autonomously in their daily lives.

After her visit, the Minister said: “We returned today to the Piraeus KAPI, not to talk about digital empowerment in theory, but to see how it is progressing in practice. We were here at the beginning of the programme and today we see people who are already taking steps:

Learning to use the internet more safely, to get on gov.gr, to communicate more easily with their children and grandchildren, to be served without always depending on a third party. This is the core of the program. Digital knowledge is not a luxury. It is a tool for autonomy, dignity and participation in modern life. We want our older citizens to feel confident about technology and to be able to use it to their advantage.”

“For us it is very important to monitor programmes where they are being implemented. Seeing what works, listening to beneficiaries and trainers, improving where necessary. Because social policy is about making sure that the actions reach the citizens and change their daily lives,” she added.