To make Udaipur a senior citizen friendly city, Sangini Initiatives– division of Rotary Club, Meera has announced their launch today at Vidya Bhawan’s Mohan Sinha Mehta Memorial auditorium.

Sangini – derived from Hindi word which means ‘friend’ is a women’s wing of Rotary Club, Meera. The group is dedicated to assist senior citizens of the society in areas of health care, education, consultation services etc.

Today, in an event held at Mohan Sinha Mehta auditorium, the key members of Rotary club, rotary club –meera, many senior citizens and prominent guests were present to induct the service.

Mathew Cherian – chief executive of Helpage India, V.K Ladiya – Industrialist, Dr. Veena Sanadhya – President, U.S Chouhan – Assistant Governor, Neelima Khaitan – Chairperson, Dr. Seema Singh – Secretary, Neelu Javeria – Co-chairperson and other members of the group attended the function.

Sangini ‘s initiative will focus on four different services to help the senior citizens of the city.

One, a service called phone-a-friend where senior citizens can call sangini’s volunteers (friends) for any assistance like accompanying them to a doctor, to a bank or even to have a cup of tea with. The service will be coordinated by Shashi Hingad.

Two, computer skills for senior citizens, in a growing age of technology and internet –boom, Sangini has taken the initiative to teach basic computer skills to senior citizens. A monthly course will be conducted at Aishwarya College where basic computing and internet will be taught. Rotarian, Sanjh Narula is coordinating this service.

Three, lectures and consultations on monthly basis will be conducted on health issues by various doctors, where on spot consultations will be provided to the senior citizens. This service being coordinated by Rotarian Dr. Kusum Mathur.

The fourth service promises of providing the elderly with dedicated senior citizen hours at select clinics, where leading doctors of the city will set weekly dedicated hours for the senior citizens at their clinics. In other words the complaints of the senior citizens would be prioritized during these hours. The coordinator of this program is Rotarian Dr. Sudha Kothari.

“The credit of this initiative goes to Veena Sanadhya , as she was the one who came up with an idea to do this for the well being of the senior citizens” Mrs Neelima khaitan was quoted as saying. She further added that “through this initiative the generation lag between the young and the elderly would be reduced” in a confession regarding the only drawback of Sangini Mrs Khetan mentioned about those elderly citizens who are inaccessible due many a reasons, a significant one among them being their poverty.

Mr. V.K Ladiya an eminent industrialist of Udaipur and one of the chief guests of the inaugural function was so pleased with the initiative that he promptly gave his own cell-phone number for assistance to the elderly under the phone a friend program. He also encouraged the senior citizens present at the programme to actively imbibe the knowledge that would be made available to them through these programmes, he urged them to break the shackles of age and come ahead and get along with the everyday changing world.

Sangini is jointly collaborated by all the Senior Citizen Clubs of Udaipur, Aishwarya College, Seva Mandir Dr. Mohan Sinha Mehta Memorial Trust.