Having been established in October 2016, homeless people who are deprived of basic amenities are given shelter, food, treatment under the care and guidance of specialists.
We see several mentally ill and destitute people wandering the streets around us, unsecured. As an initiative to provide them with a better life, we bring them to the Ashrama, provide necessary first aid, and screen them for any physical and mental conditions. Based on the necessity, we even admit them to a hospital and treat for their conditions. Then we help them rehabilitate via counselling, yoga, bhajans,pranayama, meditation, cow cuddling, exercise, games, group dance etc.
Some of the residents recover quite well enough to remember their family details and whereabouts. We trace their address by using the information given by residents to re-unite them with their families.
So far, we have reunited 106 residents with their lost families. We feel blessed to see them go home again. Like-minded people or social workers also help in bringing the patients here.
People from different regions (UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nādu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Nepal), religions (Hindu, Muslim & Christian) and age groups (from 26 to 93 years) live like a family here at Sai Nikethana Sevashrama.
Upon finding any homeless person, we enquire the locals for more details about them. If we find that the person indeed needs care and shelter, we bring them to our centre, provide first aid, primary cleansing, food and shelter with love and respect. After that we watch for their mental health for few days, we take him/her to the nearby hospital for primary investigations and health check up by a general physician and a psychiatrist. If additional treatments need hospitalization, we make the necessary arrangements. Like-minded people or social workers also help in bringing the patients here.
We provide our residents with hygienic and nutritious vegetarian diet. Provisions are made for regular physical exercise with the weekly assistance of physiotherapists. Light outdoor games, carrom, gardening, making broomsticks and helping in the Goshala are some of the other activities our residents keep themselves occupied with. Apart from these daily activities, watching TV, singing and group dance are some recreational activities they love. We have included Bhajans meditation and pranayama as part of their daily routine to help them soothe their minds with spirituality.
We were returning home from a wedding ceremony when we spotted an elderly lady aged about 60 years, wandering the streets crying for milk for her year old son. With torn dirty clothes on her body and clumsy hair, it was evident that she was homeless for quite some time. On making primary enquiries with the locals in the area, we learnt that her 25 year old son had abandoned her owing to her mental illness. Desperate for care and attention, she was pelting stones at the neighbouring houses, yelling and screaming. We took her into our custody, gave her a bath and the first aid and admitted to a hospital near our Ashram. Further to the treatment she received at the hospital and the care we took at Ashram, her mental condition has significantly stabilized. She was reunited with her son.
Another homeless lady was spotted in the busy streets of Hampankatta in Mangalore, unconscious. After primary diagnosis, we found that she was suffering from severe jaundice, anaemia and neuropathy owing to her alcohol and tobacco addictions. After two months of hospitalization, we shifted her to our Ashram in a bed ridden state. Nutritious food, regular medication, treatment including physiotherapy for about six months finally yielded results as she resumed her daily activities. She recovered to an extent of remembering her family and their contact details, following which she was sent home to Bellary in Karnataka.
