2021: What another challenging year!

Well, there were many lessons learnt during the passing year and I would like to share three of them with you as we lived it as grandmama team:

1. ‘Yes, we can do it even working from home and have distance between us’: One of the challenges we faced was working from home due to Covid and one of the biggest lessons learnt, was the resilience that grandmama team showed and managed to work and grow even from distance. Adopting new tools for communication, for organising our everyday job, and having a very positive mood, helped us to feel at the office even if we were at home. It seems that the communication was so good and strong that although we missed physical contact, we were inseparable. Consequently, we managed to work from home for more than 500 days and meet physically for only 5 days during this period. Nowadays, we are arranging to meet once per month to check on weight loss, new hair colours and news in general that we might miss from time to time. Last but not least, we gained a better work-life balance and some more money in our pocket especially now that gas has reached almost 2 euros per litre. Moreover, as a mother of a teenage boy, I realised that my son started to stay more at home rather being in his grandmama’s house while I was present, and he also was expressing more himself to me like talking about his everyday experience at school or things happening with his friend. This made me realize that despite the fact I’m working at home, I’m there and present for him compering pre-covid period that I was out until late evening. Isn’t this precious?

2. ‘The only constant is change’ as Heraclitus, an Ancient Greek philosopher, said: Pandemic period raised, apart from the obvious serious health issues, also economic and social challenges. This new normality was the source of another lesson learnt: nothing is permanent, and things can change. Therefore, adopting this new environment and staying1. ‘Believe you can fly’ and grow I will add: And we did it! Grandmama team achieved to become the largest caregiver network for senior care at home covering geographically all Greece with over 4.000 trusted caregivers. More than 1.700 caregivers were onboarded during 2021 having a 54% increase compering to 2020. Furthermore, we helped more families to find a trusted caregiver for their loved ones and this number increased by 76% versus 2020. All the above are very important since the mission of grandmama is to help seniors having a better quality of life and caregivers find a good job. Another opportunity that appeared was the shortage of nurses for hospitals, care homes and rehabilitation centres. Grandmama managed to gain the trust of the largest organizations and signed agreements of cooperation helping them to find personnel and operate smoothly.

3. ‘Believe you can fly’ and grow I will add: And we did it! Grandmama team achieved to become the largest caregiver network for senior care at home covering geographically all Greece with over 4.000 trusted caregivers. More than 1.700 caregivers were onboarded during 2021 having a 54% increase compared to 2020. Furthermore, we helped more families to find a trusted caregiver for their loved ones and this number increased by 76% versus 2020. All the above are very important since the mission of grandmama is to help seniors have a better quality of life and caregivers find a good job. Another opportunity that appeared was the shortage of nurses for hospitals, care homes, and rehabilitation centers. Grandmama managed to gain the trust of the largest organizations and signed agreements of cooperation helping them to find personnel and operate smoothly.

Wrapping up the above experience, grandmama team will continue to be resilient, finding opportunities even in dark times and helping more seniors and caregivers. During the last year’s challenging journey, we had on our side Orange Grove that helped us move forward. A big thanks to Alexandra, Serena, Daria, Vanessa, Maria, and all the Orange Grove team that backed us up! Together we can do more!

Few words about grandmama:

Grandmama is a platform that helps seniors to find trusted caregivers for home healthcare. It has the largest caregiver network in Greece growing rapidly. Thank you, Maria, Vassia, Judyta, Athena, George, Paschalina, Anastasia, Kontstantinos, and Ioulios!

* Vicky Klimi is a guest blogpost writer for Orange Grove’s blog. Vicky is an alumna of Orange Grove and CEO of Grandmama. The views expressed in this guest blogpost do not necessarily reflect the views of Orange Grove.