Retirement

Activity 1: What is retirement? (Annex 1 – 20 minutes)

• This activity is to figure out to what extent the participant knows what retirement is. Start the first exercise with the story of Isabel (part I) while showing the pictures, or let them read the story by themselves.
• Ask the participants if they know what retirement is and let give a concrete explain.

You may add other materials/films that explore a situation of people going into retirement. It is always most useful to show films of local people if possible.

Activity 2: Why do people retire? (Annex 2 – 30 minutes)

• Begin by telling the group the activity is to get them thinking about
• Give each group a sheet of flipchart paper divided into two zones, one green and one red.
• Give the group the pictures (which you can cut out and laminate if needed) and tell them to take one picture at a time, discuss what it says and decide as a group whether it is a reason why people retire (green) or not (red).
• Then ask them to place the card in the appropriate zone of the flipchart.

Encourage the group to discuss and debate why it is a reason for retirement and why not.

• The game is complete when the group discussed and placed all the cards on the chart.

Note that most of the cards can be placed in the green zone. It all depends on their interpretations. For instance, most people keep working because they need the money. But some might have enough savings and decide to retire early.

Activity 3: What is the most frequent reason for retirement? (Annex 3 – 10 minutes)

Tell the group to take the cards they have putted on the green zone in activity 2. Ask them to decide which 3 pictures represent the most frequent reasons why people go into retirement.

If possible, let them rank these 3 cards.

1 = most frequent reason

2= 2nd  most frequent reason

3 = 3rd most frequent reason

Activity 4: What do people do when they retire? (40 minutes) 

This activity requires both individual and group responses to the question but most importantly generates conversation about the different things people do when they retire.

• Give each participant two post-its.
• Ask the participants to individually think about two things that people might do when they retire. Let them write these activities/things down on the post-its. Help if necessary.
• Afterwards, ask each member to tell the group what they have written down. Let them stick their post-its on a flipchart or black board.
• Meanwhile, also ask if the idea matches with ideas of other participants. If so, group these ideas together for them. When all ideas are on the flipchart, draw a circle around the matching ideas.

This activity explores the benefits of retirement but the participants might also highlight more negative thinking, fears or stereotypes. Explore any issues raised in the activity with the whole class.

If possible, arrange to invite one or more speakers, people that are close to retirement or who have retired, to speak briefly about their experiences but ask them to focus on the reason why they enjoy retirement.  

You could also give homework and ask the participants to have an interview with one or more retirees.

Activity 5: Quiz (Annex 4 - 20 minutes)

Start this activity by asking the participants what they still remember about the story of Isabel. How did the story end? Now continue the story of Isabel (Part II), or let them read the story themselves.

The activity is about what people are afraid of or happy about when going into retirement. Describe the activity to the participants and tell them there will be a quiz at the end so they need to concentrate and listen carefully.

The quiz can be done on an individual or group basis as appropriate. Ask the participants to use the score card to count up how much points they won, based on the number of correct answers.