Hope for the homeless

A unique project in India run by a charitable trust, comprising UAE-based individuals, brings the elderly without children and orphans together under one roof


Amma!! Appa!! We want to be with you. Please don't go away!" Loving cries and aching wants tie down Ayesha Saeed and Ricky Saeed, who are their parents, by will of choice and not chance.

These are children residing at 'Our Home' set up in Chennai and Bangalore by 'Our Home Public Charitable Trust', a non-profit, non-commercial trust based in Chennai, India, to build and manage 'Our Homes' throughout the world.

"Children without their parents yearn for love and attention. The elderly without their children need support and care. We wanted to bring these two unique sets of individuals together to mutually benefit in a home setting," says Dubai-based Ayesha, a trustee handling operations of 'Our Home'.

Believing in this philosophy, she hopes that the trust will bring abandoned children and elderly together under one roof and provide them with care that brings qualitative improvement in their lives. "It will also give both the security and feeling of togetherness through inter-generational integration," she says.

Micky Jagtiani, chairman and founder trustee of Our Home Public Charitable Trust, and chairman and CEO of The Landmark Group, Dubai, is the main supporter of the 'Our Home' project. He says: "These homes inculcate a unique synergy of love and caring between abandoned children and destitute elderly under one roof - a concept which is not known in the West, but predominant in the East."