The Shanti Niwas Emergency House (SNEH) project has provided shelter to 18 senior citizens of the Indian and South Asian community since its inception in November 2015.
The emergency housing project started with a goal to rehabilitate the seniors who fall victim to domestic abuse and physical violence. These victims, who are removed from their houses or opt to leave, are provided temporary asylum at the emergency home for a minimum period of three weeks and for a maximum time of three months.
During the holiday period last year, a 70-year-old woman was beaten and removed from her house in Papakura. She refused to lodge a complaint on the family but found temporary refuge with SNEH.
The property in Onehunga can house four people at one time, and these senior citizens help cook, clean, and empower each other. The house provides a safe and secure environment for the elders with kitchen, laundry, internet, and counselling facilities and a caretaker is assigned every night at home.
“The seniors have all been helped with permanent solutions, which include going back to families, Housing New Zealand, private accommodations, rest homes, etc. We propose to increase and improve our facility to cater to the growing needs of our community,” Nilima Venkat, Project Manager of SNEH, said.
Shanti Niwas mediates with the seniors and the family, and in most of the cases, the seniors go back to their families after a few weeks. In some cases, the seniors either opt for renting homes while some choose to go back to their hometown in India.
The project has received no government funding so far, which has limited the number of people that can be accommodated under this facility. There have been instances where some of the seniors had to be given refuge in volunteers’ homes due to lack of space in the facility.
However, the project was supported by Ranchhod Foundation to run the facility. Shanti Niwas is catering for the resources and ongoing utilities expenses. The support services in the house are provided by the professionally trained staff of Shanti Niwas.
The seniors utilise their time helping the community by doing different activities hosted at Shanti Niwas. There is also a knitting group that make clothes, which is then donated to various hospitals in Auckland.
Shanti Niwas also runs other initiatives in Auckland such as Khushi that recognises, prevents, and responds to abuse of older people in the South Asian community, and Dosti where a volunteer visits senior members of the community who are immobile or socially isolated and provide them with rehabilitation services.