Brahmavar: The Rotaract Club of Manipal, under its community contact programme, visited Karunalaya an old age home in Brahmavar, on Sunday 28, September.

The program saw the participation of many volunteers as they extended a helping hand to the old age home for abandoned, aged women. As a part of the initiative, fruits and other food items were also distributed.

The volunteers of the club interacted with the elderly people of the home, who were mostly from Manipal, Udupi, Mangalore and other surrounding areas. Monica D’Souza, a resident of Karunalaya for the past 10 years, stated that every Wednesday the old age home is visited by a small team of physiotherapists from the Kasturba Medical College. Karunalaya has recently tried and helped a few of their residents to reconcile with their families and has been successful so far with two to three of them.

The old age home was established in 1999, by the order of Franciscan Fathers and is now looked after and partially funded by the Secular Franciscans. “This place for us has now become more like a family where all of us live together,” said Sister Eva, one of the three sisters who is a caretaker at the home.

Sub-edited by Nadia Lewis