Pune: Old newspapers and scrap material fund old age home in Pimpri-Chinchwad

The items are sold to the raddiwala or scrap dealer and the money thus generated is utilised to facilitate an old age home. The newspaper waste is sold to a dealer who then utilises it to produce recyclable paper and papier mache.

The members of the NGO with the scrap they have collected.

What if the newspaper waste at your home could fund and run an old age home? Under the Shri Shankar Maharaj Seva Mandal Chinchwad, Dr Avinash Vaidya, a consultant pathologist by profession, does exactly this. In this initiative, the NGO collects paper and other electrical and cloth waste from thousands of households across Pune. The items are sold to the raddiwala or scrap dealer and the money thus generated is utilised to facilitate an old age home. The newspaper waste is sold to a dealer who then utilises it to produce recyclable paper and papier mache.

Vaidya started an NGO five years ago to provide for underprivileged people in the city. Vaidya says many underprivileged people are senior citizens who were deprived of the basic necessities and are living a miserable life after their close ones abandoned them. It was then the old age home, ‘Sneh Sawali-Aapla Ghar’ in Kimalegaon, Pimpri-Chinchwad, began.

“We do not charge the inmates a penny for the facilities we provide them. We cater to their medical bills, food and shelter, transportation as well as communication needs. On an average, a senior citizen’s expenditure is Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 per month. Additionally, we also help senior citizens with their medical procedures, such as surgeries, hospitalisation and other medical emergencies. We aim to provide everything… However, the million dollar question is how to generate the revenue for the old age home? There are individuals who are not willing to provide the monetary help while some do not have enough funds to donate. That is when I came up with the idea of collecting waste from households. This can include old newspapers or cardboard, electrical material as well as other scrap material. We sell these in bulk and the revenue thus generated fuels this initiative,” said Vaidya.

The old age home has 12-15 inmates who are being looked after by the trust.

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old age home