Exposure visit to 'Tamaraikulam Elders Village' a HelpAge India Project

The Nischinta Foundation team visited 'Tamarikulam Elder Village' a HelpAge India project in Pondicherry on 18th August 2015 to understand the process that led to the developing of the project. The following are the learning experiences:

• Tamaraikula runs on charity model, which would be possible for HelpAge India and some of its fund raising approaches could be adopted for Nischinta Foundation
• The structural design is interesting and could be replicated.
• There is requirement for trained nursing staff for any elders' village.

Exposure Visit to 'Serene Retirement Colony'

The Nischinta team also visited 'Serene Retirement Colony' in Pondicherry on 18th August 2015 to understand the facilities and residents experiences. Though the colony is meant for elders it is a business model. The families of the elderly need to purchase the house in the colony and pay for the services. The company manages the services which include housekeeping, dining hall and battery operated cars. It was felt that the model is not suitable for Nischinta.

Visit to Other Old Age homes

To gain more understanding on the issues related to elders, the Nischinta team visited few Old Age homes in and around Hyderabad namely The ‘Chandra Rajeswara Rao Old Age home at Kondapur, and The Ananda Nilayam near Siddipet, Shirdi Sai Old Age Home in Medchal. The following are the Learning experiences:

• The elders are quite happy with the all the facilities provided except for the fact that they were away from their family.
• The subsided and free old age homes, on the other hand, lacked clean environment and quality services.
• In all of these homes, there were not many extracurricular activities except in Anand Nilayam where Vests making unit was established and it is operational.
• These visits reaffirmed the learning for Nischinta that there is need to create space for elders for pursuing their interests, share their feelings and engage themselves in myriad activities.