THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eighty-seven-year-old Appukrishnapillai had only Neelakantan, a bull, for his company at the Kumarakovil temple, Thuckalay, where he had been leading a solitary life for years. Five years back, even Neelakantan left his side. Pushed to more loneliness, Appukrishnapillai was looking for a roof over his head when Vayomitram, the project by Kerala Social Security Mission, came to his aid. Appukrishnapillai is presently at the Chackai Care Home, where the coordinators of the Vayomitram project, which aims to help the destitute and the age receive care and shelter, had taken him. According to the KSSM officials, Pillai had met the couple Rakesh and Bindu who had contacted the Vayomitram help desk in a bid to find the man a home. The Care Home officials had consented to take him in, following which he was admitted there in the last week of April. While Appukrishnapillai has received a new life through Vayomitram project, which has already helped many senior citizens above the age of 65 find treatment and comfort at old age, Sasi, a destitute who was picked by the Vayomitram coordinators from a garbage heap on April 10 has died. Sasi was found lying near a pile of garbage at the Sri Chithira Thirunal Park at East Fort by boys who were playing nearby. The Vayomitram coordinators had reached the spot and taken him to General Hospital ward 9, where he breathed his last. ‘’Sasi was found in a near-death situation which showed how indifferent our society could be towards the poor, aged and destitute. His hands were so thin that we thought it would come off if lifted. Such was his condition,’’ recalls KSSM project director Dinesh Bhaskar. He said that the mobile clinic, palliative and other amenities launched under the Vayomitram project in February 2011 have clicked, with the poorest of the poor having found the services useful. To reach the Vayomitram coordinators dial 93497 88889.
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