Surriya Hussain, is a constant visitor to the Senior center in Lexington.  She takes the Lexpress as often as she can during the week from her home so she can participate in its daily activities.  Although not a native of Lexington, she has her daughter  Deeba and son-in-law Ali Rizvi as residents who encourage her to attend these activities.Surriya enjoys her visits and loves to interact with other citizens at the center. 

Today Surriya with many others  is participating in the Indian Lunch offered at the Center that is made possible thanks to a grant by Massachusetts Council on Aging.  An initiative started by Rita Shah and her team of volunteers, the grant covers various towns in the vicinity and allows for persons of Indian origin and others to be aware of town resources where they live.

The meal consists of rotis, a mildly spiced lentil dal, mixed vegetable curry, rice, pakora and kheer. The food has been generously donated by Bollywood Café, the Indian restaurant in Lexington. Participants can make a $2.00 donation but it is not mandatory. There are over 50 people in the room enjoying their meal and they hail from other towns in Waltham, Winchester, Burlington  and Woburn. Mary Ann from Arlington came to know of the lunch through Mahendra Desai . She and her husband George volunteer for the meals on wheels program and he is one of her clients.

Rita Shah along with volunteers Chandrasekhar and  Chandrika are busy at the kitchen serving the food in plates and answering queries. After the meal is over, Charlotte Rodgers, COA Director of Lexington and Rita Shah share information on resources available for seniors. In Dec 2009, Burlington Senior center got an incentive grant to do the project. It has been successful for last two years in Burlington. Rita Shah, a dedicated volunteer took the lead to bring it to other towns. She says “ I went to Massachusetts Council on Aging Conference in Oct 2011 and presented my work in the South Asian community. Some of the COA directors were impressed with my work. They decided to collaborate and apply for the same grant. Nava, Belmont COA director took lead on the project and we got the grant in January 2012. She asked me to work with Belmont, Lexington and Waltham COA directors to reach out to South Asian seniors in these towns.

So what was the purpose behind this grant? Rita explains,” It is to help South Asian seniors understand the resources available to them and what they might qualify as senior citizens. Also, if they need help because of language barriers, I am here to help them with filling out forms”.

Rita also shared with me some statistical information on the number of seniors in Massachusetts and  in Lexington. The state has 10,000+ South Asian seniors and Lexington has about 300 South Asian seniors. Some of these seniors travel between here and India every year.

Rita has been doing this work for the last three years and has volunteers, Chandrashekhar and Chandrika Patel  helping her with this work. They have also formed the Friends of India Senior Citizens Organization (FISCO) group to help with the work. Ramesh Naidu is President of this group and Dinesh Shah is Vice President. Suryakant Gandhi is Treasurer and Mahendra Zaveri and Jayantibhai Patel is joint secretary for this group.

Their ultimate goal is to have assisted living facility and independent living facility for the community seniors, says Rita . As I say my goodbye to  the seniors, I am rewarded with a hug and a smile from many of them.

 If you are interested in helping with this project, please email Rita Shah at  Rita.saheli@gmail.com

|