Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V.

31 Jahre Nepalhilfe Beilngries e.V.
deutschenglisch

Siddhi Shaligram Home for the Elderly in Bhaktapur

March 2018

Background to the Siddhi Shaligram Senior Citizen’s Home

Siddhi Shaligram Senior Citizen’s Home (SSSCH) was established in 2005 with the help of Nepal Hilfe Beilngries e.V. Germany.  The residential care and elderly day care services are being providing at the elderly home. In the beginning total 30 elderly people can accommodate at two-story building of elderly home. 

The 30 beds capacity was not enough to meet the growing demand of elderly care in Nepal so Siddhi Memorial Foundation asked for help from NHB for the building extension of two more floors of elderly home and construction was fully accomplished in 2016. 

The SSSCH was established due to the challenges facing elderly people in Nepal in receiving the necessary care, particularly with the increased number of working age population in Nepal who are working overseas or away from their traditional villages and the declining birth rate. The institution should arrange in order to meet the social, spiritual and physical care needs of elderly people in Nepal.

Currently it has a 60 beds capacity for elderly people and couple of rooms used for the administrative office and some rented space for Collaborative research of University of Bergen, Norway and Tribhuvan University, Institute of Medicine, Nepal for conducting child health related research projects.

The normal monthly expenses for each elderly person per month is between euro 145 to 150 Euro which includes food (five times a day), regular health check–up, care giving and nursing care, recreational activities and others facilities management costs.

Currently 38 elderly people are living at the SSSCH. Among them five elderly people are living free of cost those who have been rescued from difficult situations and financially poor family backgrounds. Five residents are paying normal monthly expenses euro 145 but remaining twenty eight elderly residents are living on a subsidized cost and contributing euro 85 in a month. 

Currently the average age of elderly residents is 70 years old. There are 11 males and 27 females living in the home, with the youngest being 60 years old and the eldest being a 97 year-old female. The eldest male is currently 88 years old. Five nurses and twenty other staffs (kitchen, care givers, housekeeping, and store and support staff) are working in the home on a full time basis. 

The Elderly daycare program runs every day with an average 70 elderly people from Bhaktapur community. The daycare activities includes chanting, singing, fellowship, festival celebrations and cultural activities. The daycare program is running free of cost. The daily cost of running the elderly day care program is on average 30 Euro which includes refreshment and entertainment costs.

The costs of both the Residential and Elderly daycare program are partly funded by Nepalhilfe Beilngries since its establishment. Siddhi Memorial Foundation is able to take care of the needy elderly people for residential care and daycare services with the help of NHB.