Indian Association donates goodies to home for the elderly |04 August 2018

The handover of the goodies

The Seychelles Indian Friendship Association has donated numerous gift bags containing breakfast goods to the residents of the Home for the Elderly at Plaisance.

The association’s chairman, Ramu Pillay, handed over the gift bag of goodies to the director of Homes for the Elderly, Sylvia Stravens, during a short ceremony held yesterday morning in the presence of the Minster for Family Affairs, Mitcy Larue and the principal secretary for Social Affairs, Linda William-Melanie, residents of the home as well as members of the association.

The association has been donating breakfast items to homes over the past eight years.

Mrs Stravens said that the Indian Association has been very helpful towards their needs and believes that this shows how much the elderly mean to them.

“The Indian Association doesn’t only donate but every year, they hold a lunch whereby all residents from all the homes, including Praslin and La Digue, get together, and this again shows the gesture of love, respect and appreciation that they have towards our elderly who live in the homes,” Mrs Stravens said.

Mrs Stravens expressed her deepest gratitude towards the association and welcome similar gestures from other associations.

Mr Pillay recognised the close relationship between the association and the elderly homes.

He said that this is the way of giving back to the community and showing their respect to the elderly who live in homes.

“We are doing this for all homes on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, and we’ve been doing it for over the past eight years,” explained Mr Pillay.

“The first contribution we wanted to do was to the people who contributed towards Seychelles and that is no other than our elders.”

Mr Pillay believes that this is also teaching the upcoming generation that when you give, the world becomes a place where we live in peace and harmony.

Mr Pillay announced that before August 15, all homes will have been given their share of donations. More donations will be done in another two months.

While expressing her gratitude, Minister Larue voiced out her appeal to other associations to also help the homes for the elderly.

She explained that to live longer, you must be healthy.

She asked for the National Sports Council to also look into the welfare of the elderly homes to help them keep fit and remain healthier.

Minister Larue pointed out these events are historic events whereby you have a businessman and his fellow compatriots distributing to all elderly homes three times a year.

“It is very important to note that Mr Ramu and his group have affection and respect towards the elderly,” said Minister Larue.

The short ceremony ended with a vote of thanks from Mr Wirtz, a resident of the home who expressed his sincere gratitude for the kind gesture of the Indian Association.