I am 70 years old, single, and living alone in Bengaluru’s Indiranagar area. I was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which left me insecure and continually worrying about my well-being. After all, who will take me to the hospital if there’s an emergency, who will keep a check on me continually?
Niranjan Acharya story isn’t an isolated one. According to the latest official figures released by the Ministry of Statistics, India has recorded an all-time high population of citizens over 60 years of age; accounting for 8.6 per cent of the country’s 121-crore population. Ageing is slowly emerging as a new social challenge. As a nation, we need to figure how to respond to the new needs, and this is naturally going to take some time. Thankfully, social enterprises such as Bengaluru-based ElderAid has already stepped up to lead the game.
Founded in 2015, co-founders Santosh Abraham and Dr. Vandana Nadig Nair were neighbours and over many conversations, the idea of serving senior citizens in India in a way that they ‘LIVE LIFE FULLY’ emerged. While Santosh has nearly three decades of diverse experience across sales, marketing, business development and entrepreneurship, Vandana is an Organizational Psychologist who holds a Masters from the Michigan University. Once they decided to collaborate and venture in to the senior citizens space, the duo conducted intensive market research of over eight months. Santosh explains their finding saying,There are innumerable healthcare companies. But there aren’t many care organisations that can holistically help senior citizens address their healthcare, wellness, and lifestyle needs.
ElderAid believes that ‘age is just a number…senior citizens have vibrant lives, aspirations, and hobbies.’ All they need is a little support, and that’s where ElderAid decided to step in. According to Santosh “We are a single point of contact, like a concierge service, or a proxy child. There isn’t any service/problem we don’t respond too. Even if it isn’t a part of our package, we make it happen.”.........
Source, Credit and read more at:https://yourstory.com/2016/05/elderaid/