Crowdfunding campaign gives hope to the ‘old and abandoned’ in Delhi

The 14 elderly residents of a small old age home in Delhi’s Sangam Vihar recently received a new reason to smile as a crowdfunding campaign led by a teenager helped them acquire small things that help them in their daily struggles. Reflective tapes, chair guards, especially designed walking sticks and corner protectors for sharp furniture were among the small gifts these senior citizens received in the past few months.
Moved by his grandfather’s illness, Delhi teenager Aryan Rohatgi set up a fundraiser and helped the old age home – Uddharkarta Trust, run by an NGO – acquire basic facilities to refurbish their living spaces, get essential supplies and improve basic hygiene facilities. However, Rohatgi says that what matters most to the elderly is company, and having someone to talk to.
“My family and I started visiting this old age home last year after my grandfather fell sick. By spending some time with them, we realised that they felt pretty lonely and just needed to have someone listen to them and their growing health concerns. We also started noticing how they needed small aids that would help deal with their age-related concerns,” said 16-year-old Rohatgi.
He set up a website and started a fundraiser called “old and abandoned” to get the things that the old age home needed. The goal of the campaign was to raise funds to renovate and upgrade living spaces to ensure comfort and safety, offer social support and companionship to combat loneliness and isolation, enhance basic hygiene standards by installing sanitation facilities and look into their safety, according to Rohatgi.
With about ₹30,000 collected in 15 days, the family set up corner protectors around beds and reflective tapes on doors and near corners. A specially-designed metal chair guard was also made that is placed around light-weight plastic chairs so that the elderly can hold on to it for support while trying to get up. A three-pronged walking wooden stick was also designed for more support. The family is now trying to get a bed designed so as to ensure minimum discomfort in case of bedwetting that they found common among many of the residents.
“These beds will probably need some time to get ready and we will need much more funds to get them. Till then, we just hope that more people just try to take out some time and visit old age homes around their houses. The elderly just need company. We couldn’t visit the centre for a month and saw that seven of the residents were not there anymore. While some died, others just left,” said Rohatgi.
Studying in British School, Rohatgi said that he will be starting the next crowdfunding campaign soon to add more facilities to the centre.