Shanti Niwas Charitable Trust opened its third branch on 202 Great South Road on Thursday, May 17 with more than 100 people attending its opening ceremony.
The Shanti Niwas team led by its General Manager Nilima Venkat to their astonishment saw people coming to see the new branch that will provide its service to the senior citizens of the community from the South Auckland suburbs.
“The response was overwhelming, many seniors through word of mouth came to know about our new centre and dropped in for the opening ceremony,” Nilima Venkat told The Indian Weekender.
Due to the growing needs of the community especially the senior citizens who are often overlooked and not have many activities to do, Shanti Niwas opened its third branch after its centres in Onehunga and North Shore.
The new branch will provide service once every week on Thursday, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The branch will also have a social worker stationed there once every week to listen and address any issues of the seniors they may be facing such as domestic violence, depression, family issues etc.
“I think with this amazing response now; we may have to operate twice a week in a matter of a few weeks since we received such a huge crowd at the opening,” Nilima Venkat added.
Present at the event to support were Sergeant Gurpreet Arora from Counties Manukau Police, officers from Manurewa Police Station and National List MP Kanwaljit Bakshi.
The new centre is opened at the hall which is provided by community member Manjinder Bassi, and Daljeet Singh from Takanini Gurdwara also came to the event to render his support.
Shanti Niwas also provides culturally appropriate services, advocacy, counselling, translation services, and workshops on health and wellbeing.
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