MayaCARE – A friend in need

It’s a rapidly changing society for the elderly in India. Several senior citizens live away from their children who may be working elsewhere and despite health and mobility issues have to pluck up the will power and energy to complete chores and tasks on their own. We bring you yet another organization that aims to help them along the way.

A helping hand

It’s wonderful to see organizations that aim to make life simpler and easier for senior citizens in our country. Pune based MayaCARE is one such organization started by Manjiri Gokhale Joshi and her mother Dr Vidya Gokhale in 2009.

What they offer

Operational in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Ahmadabad, Nasik and Nagpur apart from Pune, Maya CARE offers a host of services for senior citizens that include outdoor services like accompanying the elderly to the doctor, railway station, airport, functions or anywhere else that they need to be taken to. Volunteers also help with buying medicines, bill payment, groceries and other tasks where seniors who aren’t very active would need someone’s help. Some of the help offered at home include reading to them, delivering library books, helping them with paperwork and in some cases helping them with the computer. “Two of our seniors are writing books and one of them has lost his eyesight. We help them with writing and editing,” says Joshi, whose daughter has been one of the young volunteers!

The best part? Maya CARE’s services, available for two hours, come free. You need to give them at least 24 hours notice to avail the service. Much of the service depends on the elderly person’s need, though Joshi emphasizes that volunteers are not meant to do any domestic chores. Maya CARE is flexible about the requirements. “It could range from sorting out books to helping a person with his/her LIC policy. All our services can be customized,” Joshi says.

In 2011, Maya CARE launched the Visit-a-grandparent initiative, under which an individual or company can sponsor a visit starting at Rs 200 onwards. “To maintain transparency, we give the contact details and pictures to the donors,” Joshi adds.

How they work

Since this is a self funded venture, Maya CARE keeps the expenses as low as possible. So far all their clients have come by word of mouth and through their website http://www.mayacare.com. Everybody in the team works from home and their volunteers include housewives, students and even working professionals, who are contacted depending on the area of coverage and need.

People interested in working with seniors can work as volunteers with Maya CARE. They need to fill out a form that can also be downloaded from their website. When volunteers visit the elderly, they carry an ID that has been issued to them by Maya CARE. Joshi has taken care of the smallest of things. E.g., the Maya CARE logo in the card is a big one so that it’s easy for even elders with poor eyesight to see. When volunteers escort the elderly back home from somewhere, say a function or wedding, they are instructed to first go inside and switch on the light, making it easy for the elderly to follow inside.

Joshi is matter of fact when she says that they aren’t transforming lives but “just trying to make seniors do something that makes them happy.”

Thanks to Maya CARE’s services, many seniors in Pune who were earlier confined to their homes have started attending weddings or going for musical functions as there is someone to accompany them.

Maya CARE also has a tie up with two IT companies to provide sponsored services for parents of employees placed abroad.

And while Maya CARE services are available free of charge for everyone, they are open to donations. Joshi adds that many people voluntarily contribute.

She cites one instance where they accompanied a group of 10-12 seniors for a movie screening in Pune.

“We got the tickets, our volunteers picked them up, showed them to their seats, took them back. When there are people to do these things for you, it becomes easy for the elderly,” she explains. In another instance, when an elderly lady had to be picked up from the railway station in the middle of the night, it was Joshi’s own brother who volunteered. “The lady was overwhelmed and said this is not a service, this is family,” recalls Joshi, who adds that is how everyone is treated.

A former journalist who moved to the corporate world, Joshi wants to get Maya CARE to a level where it is self sustainable. She is also clear that she doesn’t want this to be an elitist service that few can afford.

“Initially it was very difficult for us to convince elders,” says Joshi, who believes most seniors in the family would ask their children not to spend on them. She is extremely honest when I ask her why the services are free. “There are seniors who say we don’t need it (the service). We were a paid service for the initial one and half to two years, before we realized that our concept was right but the model was wrong. People want to compare the cost of things and this is a new concept.”

Joshi also has a strong volunteer network across cities. Sudha Gokhale, their coordinator in Mumbai, is herself a senior at 72 years. She says that the simple services, which basically take over the work busy family members cannot, has made life easier for many seniors. According to Gokhale, while the service is most well accepted in Pune, other cities are slowly getting aware. Joshi adds that most people, who once try it, want to use their services again.

How to get in touch

To contact Maya CARE, get in touch on their helpline number 9552510400 (Pune) or Mumbai 9594073475

Email: service@mayacare.com

Or visit their website http://www.mayacare.com