Life Really Does Begin at 50

By Ming Teoh, StarLifestyle, The Star

Nazneen believes that seniors should be given an opportunity to share their expertise and experience. Photo: Nazneen Ariff

When the pandemic hit Malaysian shores and the movement control order was implemented, 66-year-old Nazneen Ariff was dismayed that the language centre where she was working had to close down. “I was so lost and depressed, and didn’t know what to do,” recalls Nazneen who lives in Kuala Lumpur. She felt that it would be difficult for her to get another job because nobody would hire her at her age (then 65). “I applied for over 150 jobs on online job portals and had five Zoom interviews, 10 phone interviews, and received so many letters of rejection,” she recounts. Many told her she was “overqualified”, “over the age limit” or “didn’t have the proper training” in technical applications such as Zoom. But Nazneen feels that if she and other seniors like her were given the proper training, they would have no difficulties catching up. “Throughout this time, my family was very supportive and my husband told me, ‘Just think of it as an extended vacation’, but I couldn’t because it wasn’t something that I had planned,” says Nazneen who is of Pakistani-Turkish heritage and married to a Malaysian Muslim. “My sisters who were overseas encouraged me, saying there must be some programmes in Malaysia for seniors where they can be retrained and hired, so I started to search and found Hire Seniors,” she says, referring to a seniors employment platform that helps retirees find work.

The only difficulties I’ve encountered as a senior are when younger ones think we’re unable to catch up or don’t know certain things, says Nazneen. Photo: Nazneen Ariff

“I was so happy to connect to them because they valued my experience regardless of my age and I was given a job where I could contribute to society and earn a good income at the same time,” she says. “I was also given training in Zoom, Google Classroom and other applications.” Today, Nazneen works online, teaching students English and biology. She is also doing her PhD in educational research. Ageing, she says, has been mostly positive for her. But the stereotypes that come with getting older aren’t so easy to contend with. “The only difficulties I’ve encountered as a senior are when younger ones think we’re unable to catch up or don’t know certain things,” says Nazneen. “The first time I felt discriminated as a senior woman was at the language centre I was working at before the pandemic. The students were in their 30s and 40s. A foreign student from Punjab, India, asked me if I knew how to use email. “He said, ‘email? Ma’am, are you sure you’re able to? Ladies, especially older ones, aren’t supposed to be so smart when it comes to such things,” she recounts. Although it was a sexist and ageist remark and upsetting, Nazneen didn’t hold it against the student. “I couldn’t really blame him, it was because of his background and where he came from – a small village where women and the elderly aren’t exposed to the Internet, nor highly-educated. So he assumed that it would be the same elsewhere in the world, and he underestimated me,” she explains. “He was surprised that I knew not only how to email but also do other things online.”

Building a Network

When Nazneen learnt that the team behind Hire Seniors was launching Amazing Seniors, another platform which would link seniors not just to work but also to recreational, educational, health information and activities, she was extremely excited. “I think it’s great because I’m interested in learning new things like playing the violin and painting and I can do that through the University of the Third Age (highlighted on the platform),” she says. Amazing Seniors is the brainchild of two women, co-founders Jasmin Amirul Ghani, 48, and Penny Low, 51.

Jasmin (left) and Low wanted to create something amazing for seniors. Photo: Amazing Seniors

It is an ecosystem built on web and mobile app platforms for those aged 50 and above to connect with each other and find all things catering to their needs and interests, explains Jasmin. “The world as we know it is getting older, with one billion adults aged 60 and above targeted to double to two billion in the next 30 years. This is the same in Asia as well as in Malaysia, with adults aged 50 and above growing from seven million to 14 million in the next 20 years,” says Low. “This creates a new and powerful consumer class of older adults, and we feel that companies need to pay more attention to the mature segment and cater to their needs,” she adds. The two women who met each other through a mutual friend quickly realised that they were both doing very similar things and could combine their individual strengths and knowledge to create something amazing for seniors.

At that time, Jasmin had already kickstarted Amazing Seniors to cater to the needs and interests of seniors beyond employment, while Low had been doing a dissertation on building a seniors community as part of her Masters thesis, focusing on designing an environment that caters to seniors. Amazing Seniors is available on web, social media and mobile app, and offers special deals curated just for seniors as well as jobs, articles and information, and events and talks for seniors. It also creates a community for the demographic to connect with each other. There are products and services offered across various categories: health and wellness, travel and lifestyle, social and community, personal care, caregiving, retirement planning, active lifestyle, continued learning, food and beverage, retail, financial and investment, and volunteering. “Growing older is something to be celebrated and through Amazing Seniors, we hope to empower, educate and enrich the lives of seniors while fostering a community that grows together, watches over one another, and embraces graceful aging,” says Low. “Our unique platform aims to bridge the technology gap and empower mature adults to interact with fellow community members, transact safely online, and enhance their knowledge of the rapidly changing world. It’s a world where seniors can play, work, learn and grow together,” adds Jasmin.

Amazing Seniors is a digital platform that empowers seniors to interact with peers, transact safely online and enhance their knowledge.

Because of Hire Seniors, the ladies had a network of close to 6,000 seniors in its database. They also had access to over 50,000 seniors via partnerships with KWAP, PERKESO, Department of Social Welfare, Veterans, Maybank and CIMB. This allowed them to identify the needs of the group as well as the gaps that needed to be filled in order for the demographic to continue to live their life to the fullest and contribute to society. They conducted a survey among seniors in their database to identify their key areas of interest and discovered that the top areas are: “active lifestyle and fitness, healthcare and wellness, travel, social and community events, as well as continued learning and formal training”. “Hire Seniors allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of seniors’ needs which prompted us to launch the Amazing Seniors platform,” says Jasmin. “Furthermore, we’ve observed that consumers have an abundance of choices when it comes to purchases and information available on the Internet. But it can be confusing for them, not knowing what products, services and content can be trusted, so the platform enables them to transact safely online with verified merchants,” says Jasmin.

Part of a Community

Through the seniors community, Nazneen says that she has made many new friends and she feels blessed to be part of it. She believes that life really does begin at 50 and she’s living proof of it having achieved much in her senior years. There are advantages to growing older, it’s not all that bad, says Nazneen. “As a woman, you no longer have your period and therefore, no monthly menstrual cramps,” she says. “Besides that, because of your maturity and seniority, people tend to respect and listen to you (most of the time),” she adds. “But of course, as seniors, we need to manage ourselves well and not become arrogant nor bombard others with our ‘knowledge’.” “As a senior, we’re fortunate to have gone through different stages in life and experienced so many contrasting scenarios – both the pre-Internet era as well as the digital age now.” “When I was going to school, we didn’t have the Internet and we had to go to the library, read the books to do research to write our term papers. Now, with the Internet, at the click of a button, all the information is in front of you. I enjoy life now more than when I was in my teens, because I can just research online and it’s so convenient,” she says. Also impressed with the platform is management and education consultant Murugasu Kathiah, 64. “It helps the seniors community to recoop themselves after retirement, with all the training that is provided. All the new programmes on the platform will help keep the seniors active physically and mentally,” he says. “I always encourage seniors who are idling at home to join platforms such as Amazing Seniors and take part in programmes for those in their golden years, so that they can be active and have a new lease on life. It’s important for seniors to keep themselves active, organised, knowledgeable, and not to look down on themselves, but to share their experience and expertise,” he adds. Murugasu is also keen on checking out the University of the Third Age, among “other interesting stuff” for seniors that is on the platform. “I think I will be active in that because I’m into academics,” says Murugasu who has been in the education line for over 30 years as a teacher-educator and was also the principal of an international school. “I was an educator before and it’s my passion and forte, so I hope that I’ll be able to contribute to the community in this area,” he says, adding that besides learning through U3A, he is open to lecturing on the topics of management, English, accounting, business and global perspectives. For 60-year-old Sharon Soo, the platform “has all the things we’re looking for as a senior – healthy living, keeping oneself active, things we can learn, and more”. “There are also merchants that provide products and services suitable for seniors. We feel more secure because the merchants are reviewed before they’re allowed on the platform. And we know that the people managing it are reliable – because they’ve already proven themselves through Hire Seniors,” she adds.

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/family/2021/11/12/amazing-seniors-life-really-does-begin-at-50. This article first appeared in StarLifestyle, The Star, on November 12, 2021.