President Message

It gives me immense pleasure to write a key note as the President of VCare Social welfare society for healthy and active ageing, a role that I am honoured to carry out. One of the main aims of the organization is to response to the challenges of ageing in Pakistan by starting and promoting respite care services, and provides a platform to elderly to come out of their residents and socialize with others their age and keep themselves away from the isolations. The organization is currently initiating its first Adult respite care centre for elderly, as its first milestone. The respite care centre will provide social gathering place for adults who need supervision by offering activities and companionship. The centre will also educate, counsel, and support the care giver which will create an atmosphere that enhances the value of human life and affirms the dignity and self-worth of an individual. The centre will offer participants the opportunity to socialize, enjoy peer support and receive health and social services in a safe, familiar environment. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Executive committee and board of directors of VCARE, for their contribution for establishing the center. I am also grateful to the various NGOs for their support, for allowing us to identify the needs of adults, which has contributed to accomplishing the first mile stone of the organization..

Message from Treseraue

Mr. Hasan Karim Pirani

Care home. Two words that fill people with such dread that they prefer not to think about such places, until they have to. We do have to think about care homes though. And we have to think more generally too, about how we care for those among us who are elderly now. Old age is nothing to fear. It is a blessing. It is a splendor seen as through a veil, of the life beyond, the higher life, the life in which the higher incarnating ego lives, literally. A fine old age brings an expansion of soul, not only of the intellect, but of the spiritual consciousness and its vision. VCARE is a fine platform that inspires me to work for elderly and to show world that old age is the 2nd innings of one’s life. And we the VCARE management is eagerly and desperately want to make this 2nd inning a healthy and active one.

Message from Founder

As time changes things need to be change accordingly so that needs get to be filled and vcare believes that in the last few years there has been seen a dramatic change in the life expectancy And researches said that it will be doubled by year 2025 and most of the older population will be living in the developing countries In our society and our culture, older parents are the primary responsibility of their children; but dramatic economic changes do not allow us to give quality time and care to retain the social, mental , spiritual and physical needs of our older family members.. When we talk about awareness programs, there are several running on various topics, covering aspects from health to emancipation of thought today. What I don’t see is awareness in the society on how people could live a healthy and active life for longevity and prosperity. This is my dream that every senior person and the generation ahead ;when they age should live their elder hood full of joy, love and dignity with a smile sustained on their faces till the end. VCARE is a little effort in this regard we want to raise the voice for the fulfillment of the social, mental and economical needs of the elderly population of Pakistan vcare aimed to work with all the stakeholders including the government, non-government and corporates to promote the healthy and active ageing , through advocacy, capacity building, support policy and by providing a range of services to the frail and disabled elderly . Vcare wants to change the mind sets of our community, our society and our country on ageing. We want to encourage the elderly population to become a more productive, healthy, independent, and active part of the society As the founder of vcare I would like to express my sincere gratitude’s to all the board of directors who accepted the invitation to be a part of the VCARE and for their support to this project with full of commitment and dedication. I would also like to extend my heartiest gratitude to mr michea jeewa ( CEO – CO- Founder of APDA UK) for his commitment to support vcare as a consultant I would urge the readers to believe in us and support VCARE in promoting healthy and active ageing and walk beside us in our development and sustainability. Encourage your elder love ones to join VCARE family to enhance their social, mental, physical capabilities to live long and healthy life and become an important part of the communities. It is a small effort backed by a gigantic devotion for a happy ending because this is a matter of today’s elder population and a bright hopeful future for the next old generation.

Fatima Danish Khalfan
December 2012

Message from Ms. Shanaz Wazir Ali

Ms. Shanaz Wazir Ali
Special Assistant to Prime Minister
For Social Sector
Integrity of a family unit is the essence of Pakistani culture where family elders are given the status of family heads and authority instead of labeling them under a broad term of senior citizens. With the gradual change in family structuring, urbanization, living style and altering earning trends of family members, old citizens are not only neglected but also a sense of loneliness and mistreat is increasing in them. In such a fast moving and apparently progressing society, maintenance of family and cultural values is becoming a challenge nowadays. Increasing inflation trends to meet the living standards has also added to this family deterioration. In such a case, we highly appreciate the efforts of VCARE Social Welfare Society for Healthy and Active Ageing in providing support and backing to these elders of the society. The effort by VCARE is a step towards keeping the cultural values of Pakistani society in its intact form and upholding the respect and dignity of senior citizens. We wish VCARE to maintain its hard work and commitment in keeping the self-esteem of elders of Pakistan.

Message from Mr Jeewa

I am co-founder and Chief Executive of the Asian People’s Disability Alliance (APDA), a UK based international non-governmental organisation addressing the particular needs of Asian elderly and disabled people in the UK and abroad and working for their social inclusion in the wider society.
At APDA, I am mainly concerned with strategic planning of the Organisation’s direct services as well as its policy level work at local, regional, national and at international levels. Policy level work involves making input to local and central government departments’ work, health departments, colleges, research bodies, the UN, the EU forums and others.
Together with other like-minded people, I also had an opportunity to co-found a social housing association providing special needs, adapted and accessible housing to frail elderly and disabled people and their families.
As somebody with Burmese origins, I also co-founded the Myanmar-Burma Relief and Welfare Association (MBRWA), a community organisation addressing the needs of the Burmese community, both in the UK and in Burma. In the UK, we managed to initiate projects for the first generation elderly Burmese who migrated to Britain soon after the War in order to assist in the rebuilding of the Country, who worked in hazardous and very strenuous occupations during the early days. This group of people are now in their old age and many of them are lonely, isolated and in depressed state. The Projects worked to keep them mentally and physically active and offered them much needed age and culturally sensitive health and social development support.
I am deeply committed to addressing the unmet needs of marginalised and disadvantaged people globally, and occasionally travel to developing countries in South and Southeast Asia to contribute my substantial care background experience and knowledge, gained over twenty four years of work in the United Kingdom, to advise and assist numerous individuals and community groups engaged in the field of care.
am currently on sabbatical leave from APDA researching for my planned writing about issues affecting elderly and disabled people, including people with age related frailty and disabilities
I was immensely delighted to learn of the setting up of VCARE by former colleagues from Pakistan - Ms. Fatima Khalfan and Ms. Laila Khalfan. The two sisters were meaningfully engaged in APDA’s work with frail elderly and disabled people during their time in the UK, and having seen the commitment, dedication and initiatives shown by them in the promotion of welfare of APDA’s vulnerable Users, I felt that I would like to reciprocate their goodwill by offering my input towards the development of VCARE.
In my opinion, VCARE is an admirable initiative and very timely indeed because some of the developing countries are so much immersed in their struggle to remain stable and some are so greatly affected by the global financial crisis that in these tumultuous times, they might tend
to forget the past contributions made by people who have now become ‘elderly’ and might fail to address the needs of this section of society.
In many Asian countries, elderly people are treated in high regard and honour, a cultural element which is ingrained in the fabric of the Asian society. Combined with love and compassion, we must strive to offer the elderly population the opportunity to stay healthy and we must endeavour to create a conducive environment that would make them feel that they are still considered as valued members of society.
I would therefore like to congratulate the Khalfan sisters for bringing an innovative project like VCARE into existence, which I believe would awaken our inner Asian values effectively to the core, and I would consider as an honour to be associated with VCARE and given an opportunity to make my humble contributions to this first of its kind scheme to improve the health and well-being of the ageing population of Pakistan.