Purpose
To make everyday tasks such as going to the market or shopping easier through companionship and solidarity, especially for people who may find it difficult to do them alone due to age, illness, limited mobility, or time constraints.
What need does it address?
- Increasing accessibility for older adults and people with limited mobility
- Reducing the burden of everyday care responsibilities
- Decreasing feelings of loneliness and isolation
- Strengthening trust and solidarity within neighborhoods
- Making visible the possibility of sharing everyday tasks with others
How can it be practiced?
1. Connect people who need support with those who can accompany them.
In your neighborhood, apartment building, or local community, you can help connect people who find it difficult to go to the market or do their shopping with people who are willing to accompany them.
These connections can be created through apartment groups, neighborhood networks, or face-to-face communication.
2. Decide together what kind of support is needed.
Support can take different forms depending on individual needs:
- Going to the market or grocery store together
- Providing assistance with carrying groceries
- Doing the shopping and delivering it
- Accompanying someone on their way home
Remember that every relationship and every need is different.
3. Create a regular or flexible rhythm.
You may decide to go to the market together on a specific day each week, or organize support only when a need arises.
What matters is finding a rhythm that is sustainable for everyone involved.
4. Keep communication open.
Items to be purchased, budget, payment methods, and personal preferences can be discussed in advance.
Clear communication helps build trust and prevents misunderstandings.
Things to consider
- Respect the person’s independence, choices, and preferences.
- Embrace the idea of accompanying rather than helping.
- If the practice becomes a regular form of mutual support, make sure responsibilities do not fall on a single person.
- Trust develops over time through shared experiences.
- Always respect privacy and personal boundaries.
The Ihtimam Perspective
Ihtimam Rituals offer practical ways to strengthen care relationships in everyday life. However, lasting solutions to the invisibilization of care require changes not only in daily practices, but also in organizations, policies, and systems.
For more structural approaches, explore the Care Policy Recommendations Tool:
Shared by
This ritual was shared by one of İhtimam’s Co-Nurturers.
Ihtimam Rituals is a living collection of care practices developed by individuals, communities, and organizations in their everyday lives. You can contribute to this collective archive by sharing a ritual that strengthens care relationships in your own daily life.