Hyderabad: For the first time a mosque in Hyderabad has opened a shelter home for the destitute and abandoned aged people.
The managing committee of the mosque in Rajendranagar area of Hyderabad along with Helping Hand Foundation, a city based NGO, has set up the centre equipped with all the necessary medical care facilities for the inmates.
A K Khan, state government’s adviser for minority affairs, formally inaugurated the facility and interacted with the inmates.
The centre has 40 beds for the inmates with facilities like round the clock availability of doctor, nursing, bedside care, physiotherapy, dietician, support staff and ambulance. The centre will also have a psychologist to help the inmates in dealing with stress and other issues.
70% of the capacity will be utilised for geriatric cases and 30% for other destitute and abandoned people.
Though many mosques in Hyderabad have started primary medical care and first aid facilities and also provided oxygen and beds during the COVID-19 crisis, this is first time that a mosque has opened such a shelter.
The city of more than ten million population has only a handful of such shelters run by NGOs forcing a large number of old men and women destitute and abandoned people to stay on roads and open spaces facing the vagaries of weather and other inconveniences.
Speaking on the occasion AK Khan, retired IPS officer, said: “Like the West, old age care is becoming a big issue in India as life expectancy is increasing and families are shrinking. It is good to see civil society organizations coming forward to passionately address the needs of senior citizens”.
Earlier Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) had opened a primary health care centre at another mosque in Hasan Nagar, a slum area in Hyderabad.
The HHF, a civil society organisation, has been working in the area of public health to make it accessible for the poor and the needy sections.
