Old Age Homes..

Today, I visited an old age home running as an NGO in the Kondapur area of Hyderabad, India. A very pleasant environment full of life... Few were moving here and there.. some were sitting under the sun-shine and few were sitting alone reading newspaper or just sitting idle.

I moved inside the NGO premises looking for the administration block or some care taker. And, the reason was to get a chance to interact with them and to do something for them. I had a very clear intention, built by the last night Sakshum's meeting with Janish, Vinayaka, Ajeet and Neeti. That is to find a way for serving these people for their needs. Certainly, we had no money to donate but we were willing to build a long term relationship with such organizations and help them as much as we can.

Anyways, I asked an old man there about the office and he directed me. I moved some 200 meters in the suggested direction and found a block indicating Office. I went inside and peeped in to one of the rooms there. An old lady and an old man were sitting there. They invited me inside. I introduced my self as Vivek, a volunteer of Sakshum. I said "Sakshum is a group of 8-10 dedicated people who are committed to do something good for the society".

She introduced herself as a manager over there and oriented me about old age home. She told me that they are serving around 95 aged people here. She told me, as such they don't need any volunteer services. they are just in short of budget and looking for that. If you guys can help us then we will buy emergency lights and printer for our computer. I was a lil shocked at the reply "as such we don't need any volunteer services..." . But, I was kept listening. She told me that they had good libraries there, full time employees for the care of the residents. But, for all these maintenance they need good money. She continued that they were no profit no loss organization so, they rely on donations only.

I was feeling quite bad the way she was using the word money or donation in her every sentence. I had an impression that probably they don't charge anything from residents. To confirm I asked her that so you don't charge anything from the old people here? And, the reply was..." Nothing is free here...they all pay on monthly basis from their pensions or earned interest from their deposited money in banks etc." I was really thinking hard that what sort of NGO it was? Just a name which is used for extracting money in terms of donations, land from govt and, govt employees for care taking etc.

She asked me about my contact details and said we would contact us in case they need some help. She thanked me for visiting.. I showed my interest about interacting with the people there. She told.. no not required as such as they were already intellectual people and had their own groups. I said fine and came back.

On the way, back to home I was just thinking about it and lost my focus from driving... After I reached home, I called to Janish, Ajeet and others and told about the incidence. Finally, we dropped the plan to visi the old age home in the evening..

Even after sharing this experience a number of times to all the Sakshum volunteers I was still not able to come out of it and thought for blogging....

I am really hurt.. that how things could be exploited on the name of social services....