HELPAHOLICS

Assists Sujatha Elders’ Home

Community development projects among the public and private sector play a key role in upgrading the lives of communities in rural settings as well as marginalised communities. While elderly care remains at a poorly managed status, a group of students at the Faculty of Management and Finance at University of Colombo has decided to give them a hand. What was initially a compulsory project listed in their curriculum became their passion and the team is ready to take things further.

The beneficiary party is Sujatha Elders’ Home based in Kalutara North which currently provides residential facilities for 40 males and 35 females including 12 children who are suffering from various mental and physical disabilities. These include schizophrenia, dementia, bipolar, affective disorder, depression, paralysis, and autism. The Home is primarily maintained by the private funds of the owner and there are five volunteers currently assisting patients.

During their initial observations the Team has found out that the caregivers face various difficulties with regard to maintenance of the Elders Home, lack of space to accommodate patients and unusable lavatories. These difficulties have occurred mainly due to the lack of funds for maintenance. Therefore, they have decided to construct a new ward and improve sanitary facilities with the intention of providing a pleasant environment for this isolated, needy group of people.

The new ward will provide additional accommodation facilities for more than 10 mentally challenged patients, which will benefit the disabled community as a whole. The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs. One million and the Team is determined to raise funds for this worthy cause. Therefore they have been involved in several fundraising activities and seek support from donors to reach their target.

The new ward will provide additional accommodation facilities for more than 10 mentally challenged patients