Together with its partner organization Kamina Social Welfare Society, Austrian Doctors runs a retirement home for 30 senior citizens in West Bengal. They receive food there and have a place to live. They are all people who no longer have a family. In India, care for the elderly is traditionally provided by the family. So anyone who is without a family in old age is not looked after by the state.
Many residents of the retirement home are chronically ill. Regular medical examinations are carried out in an attempt to provide them with the best possible care so that they can grow old with dignity.
The senior citizens belong to different faiths – the retirement home is open to all. Festivals of all faiths are celebrated in which all residents participate together.
The following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being promoted with the help of this project:
The Kamina Social Welfare Society was founded in India in 1979 with the aim of organizing schools for the children of workers on the brickfields. These are mainly Bihar nomads who move to West Bengal with their families as seasonal workers to work in brick production. In the meantime, the project has changed somewhat. In an ashram renovated by the founder Mantu Shee himself, 30 senior citizens have the opportunity to spend their twilight years.
