ADOPT
A GRANNY SCHEME
For
many years now The Vidiyal Trust has concentrated the charity's
efforts on work with disadvantaged children, with the emphasis
being on education and health care.
However,
we have also had a real concern for the elderly, and Pat
had many elderly friends in the slum areas of Tamil Nadu
when she was working there. One of the things that she instigated
was a regular picnic for old folk and she also tried to
start a health care facility for the elderly - this did
not happen for reasons beyond her control - and because,
it has to be said, the elderly are not always seen as being
as important and certainly not as attractive for fundraising
as children.
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We
have, however, been supporting several individuals. We have
supplied insulin and medication for an elderly lady for
the past 6 years, supported the elderly grandmothers of
two of our sponsored children, we looked after an elderly
lady with Lupus until her death, and have more recently,
through street work and contacts, provided immediate help
for several ladies who live on the streets.
For
the past year we have, as part of our work with the Regional
Cancer Centre in Kerala, sponsored one old lady whose son
died of cancer this January (see Report
33) and we will continue that care. We also started
a similar care package with 3 other destitute ladies via
the Cancer Centre this January.
We
plan now to extend this care of the elderly on our new site
in Mavelikara. The wife of one of our Indian trustees is a
trained nurse, and will shortly be semi retiring. She will
oversee our planned project, which is to use the buildings
and gardens (that are in the process of construction) during
the daytime when their resident occupants, the children, are
at school.
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We
plan to buy a mini bus, and to transport up to 20 ladies
to our Centre several times a week, where they will receive
good food, comfortable chairs to sit in, a garden to enjoy,
and other facilities. We will be able to monitor their health
care, and to help where appropriate (for example cataracts
are a major problem). Most of all we will love them.
The
ladies that will benefit will be from slums, where often a
whole family will exist on well under £50 per year.
These ladies will be living in squalor, often only eating
two or three times a week. Our new facilities will enable
us to change that. Each granny will be sponsored, and we hope
to build friendships and a real knowledge of love in to their
lives. We can't wait to start!
(John
19 26/27)
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