PAKISTAN: Karachi's Peace Haven Provides Care for the Aged

KARACHI, Pakistan, July 24, 2006: Grace White sat in her wheelchair waiting for her two daughters who, four years ago, promised to visit her regularly after leaving her at Peace Heaven, a Catholic home for the aged and the homeless. Now in her 80s, White wordlessly brushed her snow-white hair as Venaltius Norma and Hilda Coelho, friends and fellow residents, narrated her tale. White sits mutely in her wheelchair most of the time because she finds it hard to talk and she is too frail to walk. Her two daughters, Catholics married to Muslim men, have never bothered to visit her. Norma and Coelho know that feeling. Norma, a 50-year-old widow, came to the home in 2001 after her son and two daughters, all married, "regarded me as a burden." Coelho, a 45-year-old spinster, arrived in 2000 after her only sister left for London. She, too, has nowhere else to stay and is now alone. The three women call Peace Heaven their home, as do 13 other women and 13 men, mostly elderly. The two-storey bungalow in a residential area can house 32 people and is one of three such Catholic homes in Karachi, 1,150 kms southwest of Islamabad. Another home is in Lahore. Sister Goretti Filinto, who is in charge, stated that the home also accepts people of other faiths, not just Catholics. Sister Filinto, an Indian member of the Congregation of the Mission of Christ the King, has been living in Pakistan for 51 years and has worked at Peace Heaven for the past 21 years. The home, opened in 1982, is funded by Darul Sukoon, a nearby Catholic orphanage and school for mentally challenged people that receives funds from various charities in the Netherlands. The residents get three meals and two tea breaks a day, all free, and spend their time mostly watching television, reading newspapers and chatting with one another. Peace Heaven has a small chapel, but most residents go to nearby Christ the King Church for Mass. Anthony Fernandez, 60, one of two blind people living at the home, said that other residents help him in his daily activities. He became blind five years ago when he fell from the roof of a friend's home, but an earlier accident brought him to Peace Heaven in 1994. "My parents died long ago," he recounted. "I used all my savings earned from filling gas cylinders to marry off my two sisters." He decided to marry but became jobless after a gas cylinder fell and badly fractured his right foot. "My sisters brought me here before leaving for Australia and promised to call me immediately," he said. "Since then, they have neither called nor visited." Relatives of a few residents do sometimes visit and even bring them to their own homes on special occasions. The married daughter of 85-year old ailing I.B. D'Souza who has been at the home since 1994 takes him for regular medical checkups. "Now that we cannot work, we get everything at this home," he said. Most Pakistanis pride themselves in caring for their elders. They consider it a disgrace if their parents end their days in a home for the aged. The elderly who live with their grown children and relatives often get involved with housekeeping and babysitting their grandchildren. Media reports say there is growing evidence that more and more elderly are lonely and depressed. According to Geriatric Care Foundation, an NGO in Karachi, almost no services or programs exist for aged people in Pakistan. There are some government benefits for seniors, such as not having to stand in queues, free membership to all public libraries, no delays in finalizing pension cases, and not being obliged to pay taxes on recreational activities. Among Pakistan's more than 160 million people, Labour Force surveys show that 8.1 million people are older than 60 and 5.8 million are at least 66. Source: United Catholic Association News Report in "Indian Catholic"