3.11.2024. 6pm IST
Please thank God that all / most of you reading this post are not Homeless and neither are suffering from mental disabilities.
As it's a hell of a life being a woman and a mother, who is homeless & suffering from mental disabilities as no one wants such people including our government & society at large.
Five goan homeless ladies in this video :
☆ 1. Marie aunty is 80 years living on the streets for 15 + years near Panjim navtara
☆ 2. Philomena aunty is 86 years old from Fatorda.
☆ 3. Lalita Tai 80 years old from Panjim.
☆ 4. Devta chodankar 55 years old.
☆ 5. Memita 55 years old from Curtorim.
Of the above 5 goan ladies , 4 are mothers but abandoned and turned homeless.
All brought by the Goa Police and all on psychiatric medications with no one to take care of them.
So till they are alive, it's only in 2 places one will find them :
IPHB ie mental hospital or
Shelter home ie street Providence.
And have many more such ladies and gents abandoned by their children due to economic or due to mental disabilities.
Also very sad that today 68 such people are in IPHB living there for months & years as there is no home for them & no one to care for them ,
54 men & 14 ladies.
Society at large expects the government of the day to care for such genuine ethnic poor abandoned Homeless ladies with mental disabilities.
And the Government expects NGO & shelter homes to do their work for free without the government bearing or sharing the costs.
And this is the reason why 200+ million people in our country are suffering from serious mental disabilities with the poorest of the poor and women the worst sufferers.
And the numbers are rising but mid way homes or rehabilitation homes by all governments are moving at a snail pace.
Coming back to Goa, take out for a moment our NGO and just look around and remember any other NGO working in the field of free health care & rehabilitation non stop last 7 years for beggars, vagabonds and poor people with mental disabilities, while continously increasing the bed capacity and it's all FREE for the poorest of the poor.
We started in :
》2017 with just 20 beds and in
》2023 we had 240 beds capacity and in
》2025 we plan 500 beds capacity in Goa.
Plus 150 beds capacity in other states.
And mind you we don't own any home or any property, all rented.
Collaborators/ landlords/ owners of our homes are not easy to handle as we have to pay the rent everymonth come what may.
It's difficult stressful complicated highly costly especially when you don't know where the money is coming to pay the expenses and the bills.
Many think NGOs make alot of money thru donations but then if that's the thought process why are there no shelter homes for free in Goa?
Enough of empty homes/ buildings etc are there in Goa but no one is entering this services.
We appreciate The Goa State Government under The Hon CM of Goa Dr Pramod Sawant which is partially supporting our homes thru :
◇ Women & Child Department ,
◇ Social Welfare Department &
◇ Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department.
Plus alot of other Government departments.
But the demand is too much and more and more goan people are turning homeless and suffering from mental disabilities.
You must be following us, how last few years we having fighting with the state government for funding and after many years of struggle we have reached just 40% of the budget being granted to us.
If we don't get the remaining 60% budget we will be forced to hit the streets by 6th or 7th November 2024 as we just can't manage anymore.
Then when we hit the streets The Government gets upset with us.
We care for poor homeless patients who are basically:
》Bed ridden patients with mental disabilities,
》Amputated patients with mental disabilities,
》Chronic sickness with mental disabilities,
》HIV & TB with mental disabilities,
》Highly chronic patients with mental disabilities and will never ever recover as long as they live,
》Unwed mothers with mental disabilities,
》Abandoned childless wives with mental disabilities,
》Drug abuse and alcoholic with mental disabilities,
》Patients who attempt suicide like slitting their hands, drinking phenlye, using sharp objects to harm their bodies, violent and very aggressive in nature.
The list is endless.
We just are happy to be doing the little we can to bring little light and joy to those who need food clothing shelter and health care.
Frankly speaking I am not even a science background student and i am the least qualified man to run such services with high level of impatience.
But some one needs to fill the gaps and I assume pressume & conclude it's God's calling.
It's your duty if you see such poor GOAN homeless people with mental disabilities on the streets of GOA, to lodge a complaint with the nearest police station especially If its a lady and see that the local police gets the person to a hospital so that they can be stabilised before we can take them into our homes.
We thank our numerous benefactors, majority who have been with me from 2017 and have yet to meet me in person and this may be a good number of such benefactors for the silent monthly donations month after month , year after year, only understanding our work through social media and word of mouth.
All communications strictly through whatsapp messages only on 8380097564
God bless you all
Donald Fernandes
8380097564 / 7020314848












