Home for the homeless

19 June 2009

In nooks and corners of Thimphu city, one finds many homeless people. Many of them come from far off places in search of food and shelter. Their families and relatives have left them behind on the cold deserted streets of the city or they don’t have any family members to fall back on at all.

Many of them are old and withered in tattered clothes. They carry small, dusty bags filled with odd things that they call their belongings. They walk from one street to another and spend nights on the streets they feel safe. The day won’t be far when there will be a spark of hope for them as Tashi Norbu, the proprietor of Tashi Nyencha, is planning to build an old age home, perhaps the first old age home in Bhutan.

For the past seven to eight years, the dratshang near the zangdopelri beside Changlingmithang has been a place where the homeless get a roof over their heads. This is where the old age home will be started.

The shelter will be open to every homeless person. It will provide free accommodation, food, support services and medication.

“My goal is to help the homeless people. More than 15 homeless people came up to me for help. Apart from my duty as a human being to help other human beings in distress, my late father, Aku Trongmi, who built this zangdopelri, had always wanted old, poor people to take shelter at the door of the god,” said Tashi Norbu.

The project to build an old age home began as a need to do something about homelessness and to keep his late father’s dream alive.

“The old people prefer this place as they feel next to god. They can pray and go around the zangdopelri. They want to die peacefully at the god’s doorstep,” Tashi said.

At present, Tashi Norbu is looking after five old, homeless men. He provides them free food and accommodation. “I am very grateful to this man, Tashi. He took me in. I was sick and he took me to hospital for a checkup and i feel much better now,” said Gomchen Khazi, 75, from Paro, who is one of the homeless people.

The old age home will be a privately-run, non-profit individual project led by Tashi Norbu. But he looks forward to getting donations from the government and individuals to make this a successful project.

Tashi said, “Through media coverage, this issue will raise the eyebrow of many people and, hopefully, many will turn up to help these homeless people. I hope this project will make the people realise the purpose of their lives.”

There is hope beaming on the horizon for the homeless and the abandoned. Kinzang Choden reports.

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