Kungumam – A Tamil Magazine brings out another magazine/supplement called Thozhi and they recently brought out an Independence Day issue covering many aspects of senior life in India.
Two articles came in the issue relating to Old is Gold Store. One was an interview with Jayashree – one of our Directors and the other about Udhavi, a volunteer based organization that we are part of.
Here are scanned images from the magazine.
SAMBALPUR: In a bid to provide safety to elderly citizens, who are becoming easy target of criminals, SP Prateek Mohanty launched a Senior Citizen Security Cell here on Tuesday.
The cell was launched in Khetrajpur police station and will be shortly introduced in Town, Dhanupali and Ainthapali police stations. Dedicated staff will operate the cell and will be in touch with elderly citizens regularly. The SP said persons above the age of 60 are required to register themselves with the respective police stations. They will be asked to provide complete details including age, address, details of family members, contact numbers, name and addresses of their domestic helps.
You can read the whole article here.
Udhavi – A volunteer group that provides companionship services to elders in their area was covered by the Hindu last week. Excerpts below.
Their children have flown the nest. They have to take care of themselves. Needless to say, they feel lonely.
Sabita Radhakrishna has founded a voluntary organisation, Udhavi, for such seniors.
These days, aged parents either prefer to live by themselves or need someone to take care of them, even if they live with their children,” says Sabita.
Udhavi sends its volunteers to seniors to provide them companionship or to render some help. They spend quality time with the aged, taking them out for walks or any events, chat with them, read books to them, play indoor games with them, write letters or run errands for them.
For seniors to make use of the services of Udhavi, they have to register with the organisation and also produce a consent letter from their children.
“We train our volunteers to be patient and be prepared to repeat any chore the seniors tell. They are instructed to keep from giving any medical advice, prying into the personal affairs of the aged, discussing financial matters and giving any unsolicited advice. The volunteers are not supposed to give any food or refreshments,” she adds.
“Udhavi is still a fledgling organisation and we seek advice and help from Dignity Foundation whenever required,” says Sabita.
To read more, click here. ( https://www.thehindu.com/features/downtown/making-them-feel-on-top-of-the-world/article6323907.ece)
On Google, there is a facility by which you can set “Alerts” on specific keywords and phrases. Whenever a new article, or web page with the specified words is added/created, Google sends you a mail with the link to the relevant page.
At Old is Gold Store, since we are interested in all matters relating to Senior Citizens, we have an alert set up for the phrase “Senior Citizen”. Everyday we get alerts with 10 – 15 links to articles relating to senior citizens out of which 80% are from outside India and 20% are from India.
The articles from other countries are all almost always positive articles. However, 99% of the articles from within India relate to violence and theft perpetrated on senior citizens.
Why are we not having more positive news relating to senior citizens in India?
Request our readers to share with us pleasant news relating to senior citizens please.
Dignity Foundation Chennai Chapter is launching their “Legal Clinic” at Dignity Foundation Office on August 13th.
The idea behind “Legal Clinic” is to offer senior citizens trusted information and advice on legal issues and clear doubts that they might have. The Helpline Team at Dignity will first hear the case and depending on the issue will fix an appointment with the concerned lawyer who will meet the person and offer legal advice and the course of action to be taken at our office.This service is free. Our Helpline Team will then follow up with the senior on any procedures and help in resolving the issue. So the senior can rest assured that Dignity Helpline will be with them throughout and that they are in safe hands.
The lawyers in the panel include
Mr.Raza Narayanan
Mr.Lakshmikanthan
Mr.Kandaswamy and
Mr.Sunderajan
Please do let your friends and family know so that this information reaches out to more people.