Location Dehra Dun, India
Type Elderly
Amount £1,600
Background and location
Tibetan Homes Foundation take care of 100 Tibetan elders living at two old people’s homes. The staff at the homes take really good care of them all. However, like most buildings in India, the homes has no central heating. A few wood stoves provide a little heat but the rooms are very cold in winter, especially at night.
In the winter, temperatures in Rajpur can drop as low as 1°C in December. Living with insufficient heating can be uncomfortable and even dangerous for elders with health problems. Last winter, some of the elders suffered from health complications made worse by the cold.
Project
The old people’s home in Rajpur is not well funded and they struggle to provide enough warm winter clothing to keep the elders warm and healthy. They usually rely on donations of second hand clothes from staff or alumni from nearby Tibetan Homes Foundation school.
After several years of not receiving any donations of appropriate clothes, they asked us for a grant so they could buy new winter clothes for all the elders in their care…and, of course, we said yes!
The elderly Tibetans at the home all now have new winter clothes and, for the first time in years, they all fit perfectly and are suitable for the climate they live in.
Meet Thupten, one of the Tibetan elders who received new winter clothes …
Thupten was born in the Tsar Kham province of Tibet in 1938. Like many of his neighbours, Thupten doesn’t have enough money to buy new clothes as he has no source of income. There are no family members to rely on as he and his late wife did not have children.
Thupten arrived in India half-starved and sick, and like many of his fellow residents worked on road construction to make enough money to survive in exile. This hard physical labour at a vulnerable time caused long-term health problems for many Tibetans. Today, Thupten still has poor vision and joint pains.
Pictured above in his room, Thupten says he is nevertheless happy in the old people’s home and is “feeling fine”. He is very happy with his new warm clothes and is grateful for the support all he receives from people so far away – people like you!