FIGHTING THE COLD!
It’s always harder for us to put into practice projects that are not related directly to the children, such as, for example, our Dada-Dadi programme.
Help for the old people always seems to be forgotten in our society and the larger part of aid from the Western world is destined for the children. If the children are the future of a country, the Grandparents are the living memory and, unfortunately, are pushed into the background with less food, less medicines and less of everything.
India is the second country in the world for the number of old people. According to Asia News, for the year 2021 India could have 140 million old people without the capacity nor the will to take care of them.
The traditional family is becoming less common and grandparents are left alone. Indian society is moving away from the traditional “extended family” where the adult male members took charge of their parents and all lived together. The traditional values of caring for and respecting the senior members of a family are being lost.
The elderly are abandoned, left alone with nowhere to go and with no State aid. Dr. Carvalho in Asia News states that the Government always ignores the rights and needs of the old people and that the Authorities should extend the right to a retirement pension to these people so they can live with dignity.
In our Dada-Dadi programme we attend to the disabled as well as the elderly who are alone, widows with no male children or those abandoned by their children, abandoned also by the Government, with no dignity, who are forced to beg for minimal survival.
We try to bring a little relief to such hard living conditions by offering food and clothing. We also accompany them to the doctor, purchase medicines when needed, repair their huts, provide beds and listen to them so they do not feel so alone.
In India when it’s cold many of these old people die since they are weak and cannot endure the low temperature in their huts with insufficient protection. For this reason, last year we gave them jerseys, and this year we have provided them with blankets so they can sleep with more warmth.
Here we offer an enormous THANK YOU to all our members who make it possible for us to carry on with our Dada-Dadi project.
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