Mahatma Gandhi Home has a new website:

www.mahatmagandhihome.nl

No pyama days in this home!!! Each day is loving and care .......

Mahatma Gandhi home for the elderly

A project we heartfully support is the Mahatma Gandhi Home, a home for the elderly in Pondicherry, a city with over 200.000 inhabitants, approx. 135 kilometres south of Chennai, formerly known as Madras. This home is a private initiative of Dutchman Albert Zwaan, who is providing medical care in the region for the past 12 years.

With support from mainly The Netherlands, this home operates for over 2 years. Thanks to the staff, partially sponsored in their education and partly thanks to women, which would normally be socially outcast (just for being a widow or outcast by relatives), this home cares for about elderly 20 people. The residents have mostly been found neglected and abondoned on the streets, and find themselves now into a situation of being cared for. It is a wonderful project and although it does not meet the entire need of the country, it is a start. Imagine the transfer of a totally hopeless situation into an environemt of only daily hot showers and being fed.

As opposed to European standards, where budgets due to staff shortage require the days wearing a pyama, this home looks after the elderly in a decent and respectful way, employing people deserving a decent and respectful treatment. Moreover, the inhabitants are being cared for by people who are socially negelcted and find a new goal in life.

If you want more information about this project, please contact MGH via their website.