Senior citizens extending helping hand to the needy

Y Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: While most senior citizens sit back and enjoy the sunset, there’s one dynamic group of elders in the IT capital who have decided that the sunset years should be a time for giving to the needy and the unfortunate.

The Domlur Senior Citizens’ Charitable Trust (DSCCT) have been helping more than 150 families in and around Domlur since March by providing much needed groceries.

“Our objective is to provide groceries to these families for a year. We have successfully completed nine months with the support of Rotary Bangalore East, especially Janardhan Menon and SA Chandran who provide 50 percent of the groceries supplied to needy families,’’ said DSCCT president V Krishna Murthy.

The DSCCT members began supplying groceries to 25 needy families from March and now the number of beneficiaries has gone up to 155. The beneficiaries gather at the DSCCT office every first Sunday of the month to collect groceries, which are all packed in bags.

“I am very happy to associate with the DSCCT members who are doing a noble service to the needy people. We want groceries to reach the deserving,’’ said Rotarian Janardhan Menon. Each of the 155 families gets groceries worth Rs 1,000 per month. They have been receiving supplies since last March.

“I am grateful to the good Samaritans who have been a great help for many people like me, in and around Domlur,’’ said Salma, a widow, adding that she has to depend on groceries supplied by the DSCCT since she lost her job during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Echoing the sentiments was Bhagyamma, a senior citizen from AK Colony, who said the groceries being received every month have been a great help for her. Ankamma, who has a physically-challenged son, told NT that it was huge weight off her shoulders as she no longer has to worry where the next meal is coming from.

It may be recalled that the DSCCT members had opened a kitchen at a community hall in Domlur during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to supply food for thousands of needy people. The DSCCT members had also provided basic amenities such as drinking water, toilets and medicines at a High School for Girls. They had also supplied biscuits, water bottles, face masks for frontline workers and LPG iron boxes to some dhobis during the pandemic.