As mentioned in previous blogs, the main work of Child Aid Ireland (CAI) in India is supporting financially the education of children. Over and above that, some relatively large individual building projects have been undertaken over the years. These would often include schools, childrens' homes, and sometimes churches. A few days ago we spent the afternoon in Avoor to celebrate the opening of an Old Peoples' Home.
The Home will accommodate 25 people who are really old and destitute. On the day of the opening, the 25 steel beds were being assembled outside the Home!
I saw what I can only describe as a filthy shack in which perhaps 12 old people had been living in. The situation was sub-human.
The new Home is a fine building, with fans (a very importanty thing in this climate obviously), toilets, wash basins and some showers, and a kitchen. It is simply but well built. People of every age rise to an occasion like this. There were lights covering all of the front wall of the building.
After the Opening Ceremony, we all trooped into the Home for some speeches and a display of Tamil culture by some young people from the area.
The most touching part of the event was the calling forward of each of the women and men who will be living here. They were presented with their own tray (a large tin plate for their food), and a tin cup - having these as "your own" would have been seen as very important by the individuals receiving them. They were also given their blanket, etc.
Local custom at these events is that all the people naturally sit on the floor. Embarassingly, our team are given shares. Fr. Michael very rightly pointed out at the Ceremony that we should have been sitting on the floor alongside them, and some of them should have been using our chairs.
This Old Peoples' Home will make a great difference to the living conditions of 25 people ..... but what about all the others who would have made their way home ..... to what?
