Support Fundraising to Overcome Loneliness of Elderly

Older people are a valuable resource for any society. Aging is a natural phenomenon with opportunities and challenges. As of 2019, over 139 million people living in India are aged over 60 which is over 10% of the country’s total population. The proportion of older people is expected to almost double to 19.5% in 2050 with 319 million people aged over 60. This means that every 1 in 5 Indians is likely to be a senior citizen. We can estimate the numbers of elderly in Washim district using above mentioned census and ratios to be approximately 120,000.

Due to the migration of youth population to the cities, elderly in the region are spending a very lonely life. Most of the families are now becoming neutral families breaking the age old traditional family system. These sudden changes in their social life are making the elderly more vulnerable to commit suicide.

An aging population increases the demand for health services. Older people suffer from both degenerative and communicable diseases due to the aging of the body’s immune system, as well as mental illnesses associated with their loneliness, including the tendency to suicide. Accordingly, UVS seeking through this proposal to establish a special program for elderly in Washim, to provide an integrated care services, in order to save their lives, and enhance their life quality.

The idea is to contribute for the present scenario of elderly's suicide plight through the provision of basic education, promoting awareness, imparting employable skills, infrastructure development and activity labs to involve the whole community. The activities are structured in different phases which, step by step, will contribute to put higher emphasis on senior citizens and elderly careness. The rpogram objectives are to improve physical abilities, social skills, and overall health of old age peoples; increase their social interactions, independence, self-awareness, and emotional well-being.

People we are working with are mostly elderly living in the Washim District of Maharashtra state. Due to migration of youth population to the cities, elderlies in region are spending lonely life. Also due to sudden change in family system most of the elders are discarded through their families. This population is now need an assistance to give them the dignity and social inclusion. Elderly are most vulnerable to stress and mental illness and this population is contributing to the numbers of suicide in region. These are the reasons why senior citizens are our target and our emphasis is caring them to age with dignity. Our solutions consider several areas of interest that are of high relevance for their wellbeing:

a. Recreational Center: Through recreation center we may mobilize an elderly people to offer them the services including but not limited to social and personal requirements. This include: 1.To offer them 24 x 7 service to visit recreation center, read newspaper,reading books, watching TV, talking to like-minded, playing indoor games, etc. 2. Organize weekly or monthly outings, meditations, bhajans or satsangs, etc. 3.To organize entertaining events like musical chairs, birthday, celebrations, singing competitions, stress relieving activities, etc.

b. Health Related programs: 1. organizing health checkup camps on regular intervals ( B.P, diabetes, eye checkup and treatments); 2. Expert guidance on diets and health related aspects.

c. Social Work Programs: 1. Engage elder community in social work activities in which they have skill or expertise (ex: teacher may give service to teach students in slums. Others may choose the field of their interest); 2.Organizing elderly visits to nearby villages, identify the problems in area and may help to solve it.

Universal Versatile Society (UVS) is a non-political, non-communal & non-governmental voluntary social organization. It is founded by a group of socially concerned and committed individuals in the year 2005 and registered under Societies Registration Act-XXI of 1860. Since its inception, UVS is actively engaged in Environment, Education, Health and Women Empowerment thematic areas through people’s participation in Washim district, Maharashtra. Thanks to the strategic position on the ground, and the team members' familiarity with the social challenges in the area, the organization has successfully established several initiatives across the Washim District in Maharashtra. Being enthusiastic and innovative, the building block of the organization is a tiny little principle as “Sustainable livelihood”, which has anchored all the activities whose mission is to dedicate to serve the community, nation and world by connecting the donors with community-based projects, coordinate the available resources and expertise to promote sustainable development in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Te idea to join and apply to Solve is because our organization has a huge need for support and networking engagement with other peers from all around the world from the different fields. Our aim and desire is to join a class of impressive peers that act as a trusted support group, offering inspiration and guidance, and being able to take place among a powerful network of impact-minded leaders.

The solution has been put forward by a group of local volunteers living the every-day challenges occurring in the Washim District. Giving access to proper care during the older stages of life is an act of human kindness which lighlights the role of each community member in supporting all people living together, it is comparable to give back what's been received during the early stages of life. 

The idea to teach not only to the families directly involved, because of the presence of an elder, but to the community as a whole reflects the community's philosophy of engaging whoever experiences directly and indirectly the need for elder's care. Training centers and activities on health and wellbeing are of utmost importance thanks to their innovative aspect of involving everyone within the community, so as to grant positive intergenerational waterfall effects and high quality-educationla training delivered on the ground.

Ageing is a continuous, irreversible, universal process, which starts from conception till the death of an individual. However, the age at which one’s productive contribution declines and one tends to be economically dependent can probably be treated as the onset of the aged stage of life. National Elderly Policy defines person of 60+ age group as elderly. Some of the problems associated with old age are:

• Social: Indian society is undergoing rapid transformation under the impact of industrialization, urbanization, technical & technological change, education and globalization. Consequently, the traditional values and institutions are in the process of erosion and adaptation, resulting in the weakening of intergenerational ties that were the hallmark of the traditional family, negligence by kids towards their old parents disillusionment due to retirement, feeling of powerlessness, loneliness, uselessness and isolation in elderly.

• Financial: Retirement and dependence of elderly on their child for basic necessity, sudden increase in out of pocket expenses on treatment, migration of young working-age persons from rural area have negative impacts on the elderly, living alone or with only the spouse usually poverty and distress, and Insufficient housing facility.

• Health: Multiple disabilities among the elders in old age, health issues like blindness, loco motor disabilities and deafness are most prevalent, mental illness arising from senility and neurosis, and absence of geriatric care facilities at hospitals in rural area.

At the beginning of our project, we are conducting qualitative and quantitative surveys to get a better understanding of the current status quo, and the research baseline will scrutinize the actual socio-economic status of the targeted population by undergoing focus groups. 

Then, monitoring actions will take place during the whole timeframe to ensure the currect enforcement of the project