Articles
How Can NGOs Help Make Life Easier For The Elderly
by Kanan James NGO INDIA
Help for the elderly and senior citizen becomes very
important to give them a good lifestyle and health care because it has been
statistically proved that India has the second highest Indian population in the
world and it is projected to become around 12% of the total population of India
by year 2020. Let us look at how we can keep our elderly population happy.
The elderly people in India are
facing a certain amount of loneliness and negligence. There are many reasons
associated with the build-up of such a situation. Some of the most important
and crucial contributing factors to this development are:
·
The breakdown of joint family system,·
Elderly people preferring to stay close to their friends and
family,·
Children moving far away in search of greener pastures,·
Working children and their spouses,·
Economic dependency,·
A change in the perception of the society leading to
generation gap etc.
All this leads to one
fundamental fact—there has been a gradual degradation of the family support
which would previously provide the much needed help
for the elderly. Consequently elders are left to fend for themselves at
the mercy of a bevy of servants and care takers for those who can afford. For
people who are not able to afford, it is either their spouses who take care of
them or they somehow manage to do it on their own.
It is this situation prevalent
in today’s society which has actually set most of the ngo India thinking about how
to improve the quality of life for the elderly. Consequently they have come up
with several schemes and packages wherein old people are not only encouraged to
stay active and healthy but also enjoy life in the process.Some of the projects which are
run by most NGOs with regards to elderly care can be classified into:
·
Setting up of active ageing centers:
It is generally seen that most elders have no active work to do, no friends and
relatives to go and no support system even in homes. This leads them to get
depressed and also affects their health. The basic idea of the activity ageing
centers is to relieve elders of this feeling of isolation and depression and
give them something to look forward to so that they can regain their confidence
and self-worth.
·
Mobile health care units: Post retirement most elders
are unable to afford proper treatment due to the high medical costs involved.
Also there are some who are confined to their homes since they are not able to
go out due to physical constraints. Mobile health care units sponsored by
donations made by people who have an urgent need to give back something to the
society, are a boon for proper senior
citizen health care.
·
Cataract surgeries: Cataract is a common problem
with the elderly but many a times due to paucity of support system at home,
they are unable to take corrective action. This results in them having to give
up many favourite hobbies like reading, watching television etc. But today NGO
run programs also organise cataract surgeries so that the elderly can live
their normal lives.
·
Old age homes: These are homes run by NGOs for
caring for the elderly especially those who
either have:o
No place to stay oro
Are forced to stay alone with no one to look after them.
Today most people understand the benefits that
they can derive when they make a donation under 80g.
Hence with more and more people willing to make contributions NGOs today are
able to do much more for the society than before.
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Created on Sep 28th 2017 02:27. Viewed 590 times.
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