I Am Because We Are – Co-housing as a Solution

Photo by Ilvy Njiokiktjien / VII. Granddaughter Norah watches a series on the laptop while her mother, Lisa, prepares flowers for the funeral. Grandmother Els is trying to choose an outfit for the funeral while her husband John lies next to them in his coffin. Grandfather John passed away a day earlier. His coffin is placed in his bedroom in the former hay shed at intergenerational cohousing family Blom, in Zoelmond, the Netherlands, on October 2, 2020.

Ilvy Njiokiktjien’s long-term project on cohousing was published in the July issue of National Geographic in The Netherlands, on newsstands now 

About the project:

“Not long ago, paying a visit to grandparents in state-supported housing for older adults seemed to satisfy everyone’s emotional needs in the Netherlands and allowed young couples to focus on raising their children and working at their jobs. Now, with changes in the country’s liberal welfare state and expectations that seniors will remain at home longer, it can be quite a challenge to support aged family members who might even live on the other side of the country. This and other socio-economic developments have contributed to a rising interest in communal living, which can be observed not only in the Netherlands but also around the world.”

This project, which has also been published in The New York Times, has received support from the Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative, a partnership of the World Press Photo Foundation, the MIAP Foundation, and the Solutions Journalism Network.

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