A home for the deprived old age people & deprived children of the society (orphans). A house they can call their own and live without depending on anyone. A self reliant system for their stay & survival.

Women and children’s issues have received much attention of policymakers lately but older peoples issues hardly even come into discussion. Policymakers and the general public are unaware of the situation of older people in India—the difficulties they face, their rights, the support services needed for them including basic health services. Moreover, the issue of older people is ‘hidden’ since the general conception is that older people are respected and taken care of by their family, so there is no need for outside intervention while in reality, most older people spend the rest of their life in difficulty, pain and in silence. Same is the story of underprivileged children — neglected & no one willing to take care of them as of their undue circumstances.

In order to create awareness on the plight of older people and to bridge intergenerational gap, preliminary discussions were held with older people and their family members including children. This helped us to let families know about the project objectives, understand their views regarding older people and generally helped to raise awareness of the importance of older people at the family and community level. There is a good rapport built with the community—the older people, their families, elected ward officials, and local volunteers.

With the experience gained in the 11 years, Older People Sharing and Caring Project will continue through the future years with the following goal and objectives.

Goal: Improve the status of older people and increase their feeling of 'inclusiveness' in the society.

• To help reduce intergenerational gap through increased interaction between different generations and enhance each other's understanding;
• To study the best health care model for the older people;
• Advocating for increased access to quality care services to older people through appropriate policy and program interventions by the government and concerned agencies;
• To make the project activities as sustainable as possible with the creation of older people forum at grassroots level to carry out the programs and advocacy independently.

Interaction programs

There is a need to create awareness among younger generation of the importance of older people in the family and the community, the problems they face and increase the level of understanding between the two generations so that older people have homely environment and are properly treated by their families. One way to reduce the intergenerational gap is to open dialogue between older people and the younger generation so that they understand each other better. Rapport will be built with children’s groups from different communities/localities and preliminary discussions regarding older people will be held with them. A children’s room has been set in the same building where religious activity takes place. There are reading and playing materials for children there to come and spend their time. Children and the older people will be brought together in weekly sharing forums. They will also be brought together in interaction sessions during workshops/training.

Advocacy

Besides the community level, there is a need to raise awareness on the particular issues of major concern to older people such as health care, medical treatment at discount prices to older people, problem with old age and widow allowance at the national level as well. Within a year at least two local level and one national level workshop will be organized involving different audiences including media, policymakers, and influential people. The media will include radio, newspaper and TV journalists. People who can influence the policy for older people will be invited from time to time in weekly forums to raise awareness on the issues of the older people.

Education & Competitions

Essay and debate competition regarding older people and their lives will be organized among children’s groups at local level. Series of publications will also be brought out in local papers on the major issues of older people.

Proper Education
It is ensured that equal access to education is provided for all women and girls. Special measures can be taken to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate lifelong learning as the development of occupation and technical skills by women. Reducing a gender gap in secondary and higher education would be a focus area. The existing policy targets will be achieved, with a special focus on girls and women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections, including the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/Minorities.

Health Improvement
A holistic approach to women’s health includes nutrition and health services requiring special attention to women at all life cycle stages. The reduction in maternal mortality and infant mortality is a priority concern and is another sensitive indicator of human development. The national policy for women empowerment reiterates national demographic goals for Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). Women must have access to comprehensive, affordable, and quality health care. Measures must be adopted that take into account women’s reproductive rights and vulnerability to sexual & health-related problems including infectious, endemic, hypertension, communicable diseases, water-borne diseases, and cardiopulmonary diseases. The consequences of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases will be tackled from a gender perspective.

Nutrition
As there is a risk of malnutrition and disease that women face at all the critical stages — infancy and childhood, adolescence and reproductive phase — attention has been paid to meeting women’s nutritional needs. Special efforts will be made to tackle macro and micronutrient deficiencies, especially amongst pregnant and lactating women.

Monthly review meetings will be held with the project staff, advisory committee and the older people themselves. Frequent review meetings will be held with actual beneficiaries, i.e. older people themselves who attend the programs to monitor the progress and get their feedback and suggestions to improve the program. At the end of the program, stakeholders themselves will undertake an evaluation of the project activities.

Networking: With the experience gained in the initial project areas, project activities will be extended to other nearby localities. We will be encouraging other local NGOs to undertake such activities by themselves in their localities. Sri Sharadamba Trust will provide technical support to carry out such programs in different localities. One local NGO from the nearby area has already contacted Sri Sharadamba Trust and shown keen interest in the activities and the staff has been involved in the training. Other NGOs also will be contacted and the sharing forums with like-minded organizations will be held to learn from each other’s experience.

Study of best health care model

Review literature from other countries with similarities to Indian culture; healthcare and other service providers (public, private and voluntary organizations) will be sensitized on the health situation, needs, concerns and capacities of older people through interaction programs including older people themselves; solutions and recommendations will be sought. This will be tied with awareness raising program mentioned above.

In order to alleviate medical problems of older people, monthly health camps are held and special camps are held occasionally. This is a major attraction as beneficiaries get free medicines for minor conditions otherwise ignored. The Trust aims to make these services sustainable and to strengthen community support networks for older people.

Monthly & yearly urgent requirements of Sri Sharadamba Trust include medical equipment, mobility aids, food supplies, funds for emergency medical care, and other operational needs.

We bring together three key pillars of social change — NGOs, Individuals and Corporates.

• Individuals – Volunteers, Funding, ground-level support
• NGOs – Ground level support
• Corporates – Volunteers, Funding

Additional material to attach for proposals or submission:

• Detailed beneficiary list and individual case studies.
• Photos (with consent) of activities and beneficiaries.
• Monthly activity reports and financial statements.
• Letters of support from community leaders.