Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Munavarbasha
Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Munavarbasha is a retired schoolteacher. She has a passion for Tamil language, graduated in Tamil literature and used to teach Tamil in high school. She voluntarily retired her job early and started the old age home with her husband to look after the destitute elders.
Why did you start the old age home?
When my husband came up with this idea of starting an old age home and helping the Destitute elders, it struck me so deeply as we missed living with our parents and this could turn out to be an opportunity for us to live with family-like environment and serve many elder mothers. I was worried about the expenses and running cost to start the home, so we came up with an idea to run ladies hostel and the income will help us cover up the expenses for our old age home. With the little savings we had, we rented a house in kodambakkam and started the old age home. We are overwhelmed by the support we received during Chennai cyclone when loads of people came forward to help us re-build our home. I am confident one day, we’ll move to a permanent residence with people’s support and serve more Destitute elders and orphaned children.
What is your vision for annai ullam?
We want to build a better care home to accommodate more Destitute elders and children, provide education and medical care. That is our long-term vision. Now due to lack of space and higher running costs, we are unable to accommodate more than 25 Destitute elders in our home. turning down a new elder mother due to lack of space is heart-breaking for us.
How can we get involved?
One area where we need help is in fundraising. We do not know how to reach out to the world and get the funding to build a new home for Destitute elders. Any advice and help in this would be much appreciated. You can also get involved in other ways such as visiting the elders & spending time with them, organising events and running medical camps.