About Aging Smiles

THEY JUST NEED SOMEONE TO HOLD THEIR HAND

No one in India has it worse than the aged poor.

Many have been abandoned by family members unable or unwilling to care for them. Many others are crippled in unimaginable ways that prevent them from being able to do much for themselves. So many of India’s aged poor live on the streets.

They’re unable to care for their own hygiene.
Unable to make their own food.

Unable to shield themselves from extreme heat or rainstorms.
Unable to avoid exposure to all kinds of contagious diseases.

They’re trampled in spirit, forgotten, and discarded by a world that’s waiting for them to die. They are “broken souls,” as Remedia founder Jillian Haslam describes them.

But as hard to believe as it might seem, there’s great hope for India’s aged poor.

There’s hope because their needs are very simple. All they really need is a place to belong, and someone who cares enough to give it to them. They just need someone to hold their hand and give them what they can’t get for themselves.

This is what you can do for India’s aged poor by giving to Aging Smiles. You can give them a reason to smile again. Here’s how:

HOW AGING SMILES LIFTS UP INDIA'S AGED POOR

We use a 5-level approach that identifies who needs help, what they need, and how best to serve them.

Level 1: Assessment of Need

Some aged people in India do have some means of self-support, or from families. But they will still come to us sometimes. Our need assessment allows us to politely turn some people away who don’t really need the kind of help we offer. This allows us to prioritize for the people who would die without help.

As more people like you choose to give to Aging Smiles, we will be able to expand our service to more people, including some of the ones we’re forced to turn away now.

But our priority is to help people like those you just read about. People who can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t care for themselves, and have no one else helping them.

Level 2: Food Rations and Food Banks

India operates on a ration-based food system for the poor. They’re given ration cards and can use them to get wheat, rice, kerosene, and other essentials. It’s a very imperfect system beset with problems, but it’s all some people have to hope in.

Your gifts make it possible to give ten rations per month to the aged poor who come to Aging Smiles. We also have food banks that give more food when the rations aren’t enough.

Level 3: Medical Health Check-ups

There is no functioning health care system for India’s aged poor. Your support provides free health check-ups so we can meet any basic medical needs before they become more serious.

Level 4: Eye Exams

India’s aged poor are no different than wealthy British celebrities in one respect: Many lose their vision as they grow older. It’s hard to get by without vision.

You can help provide free eye exams to the elderly poor. And if they need them, we also give glasses to help them see clearly again.

Level 5: Friends and Entertainment
As you saw at the beginning of this page, one of the worst conditions for India’s aged poor is loneliness. So many are forgotten or abandoned. They literally have no one in their lives who knows them, let alone will care for their needs.

If you only gave them food and medical care, they’d walk away with their deepest needs still raw and wounded.

That’s why Aging Smiles also gives them a place they can come to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

They learn craft-making and knitting in fun and interactive group settings. They get a chance to meet other people in social events. We sometimes even bring in entertainers like singers.

All this serves our core purpose, one that you get to make happen when you give to Aging Smiles :

Restore their health, but also their humanity.