FAQs

Residents are either referred to us by people who know of them, or more usually are reported as being on the side of the road in an emaciated condition, sometimes unconscious but always frail and confused.

If a resident is referred by someone else Viji always does a home visit, to wherever they are living or staying and assesses the situation. If she deems they are in genuine need they can be admitted to the Care Centre immediately.

Occasionally old people hear about us by word of mouth and arrive on our doorstep, sometimes after walking for days to find us.

Not one penny! UK volunteers all work from home and give their time freely. Any small amounts of money necessary for the administration of the website, postal and stationary charges etc are funded from the tax element of donations refunded by the Government under the Gift Aid scheme. Every penny donated goes directly to maintain the work we do in India. The Indian staff members are all paid a local wage, and most come from poor families themselves. Jacob's has a staff saving scheme and makes every effort to help and support them with any problems they may have.

In 1990 my husband Larry and I went to Bangladesh for two months as volunteers at the Families for Children Orphanage. The following year we spent some time at the the FFC project in Tamil Nadu, South India and I continued as a volunteer for FFC until 2006, fund- raising in the UK and visiting the project in India on a regular basis. I soon learned that not only children but old people too were desperately needy and there were very few facilities available to them. For years I talked about wanting to do something, so finally in 2006 I resigned from my voluntary job with the children's charity and founded Jacob's Hospice Homes and the Care Centre.

It has not been part of the Indian culture to give money, but increasingly people give food, clothes and household items. Many of the young people I have met have a real social conscience and are starting action groups to help the poor and disadvantaged. Education is the key here, and I have seen enormous changes over the last 20 years in awareness and understanding of the problems of the poor. However the scale of the problem is immense and will take many years to change.

It is true that India is becoming an increasingly rich country. However I am yet to observe the 'trickle down' effect. Rather it seems to be that there are two parallel societies - the poor and the rich, or comparatively rich. It is difficult for us, living in an industrialised country, to truly appreciate the level of poverty in India. In the West even those living in poverty can live in well constructed dwellings with clean running water, toilet facilities and access to good free health care. Welfare and social benefits are available to those who need them. Such luxuries are a dream for more than 80 million people in India. So I'm afraid charities such as Jacob's will be needed for the foreseeable future.

No, unfortunately we are not able to accommodate volunteers at the moment. However we love to have visitors and welcome anyone who would like to join in at Jacob's for a few hours or a couple of days. If you are travelling in South India and would like to visit please contact Jen, via the website, for further details.

Money is transferred from the bank account in the UK to the Jacob's account in India. Mr Santhanam, the Jacob's cashier, keeps accounts of all incomings and outgoings. He is extremely thorough and prides himself on being able to account for every paise!

A fully itemised account of all expenses and income is emailed to the UK office monthly, as is a separate wages account and bank statements. We have an auditor in India who checks accounts quarterly and submits them annually. Jen visits regularly and checks all the accounts as well as visiting the auditor.

Viji and Jen are in touch daily, by email phone or Skype, and apart from regular day to day expenses like food and rent, discuss matters such as medical expenses and maintenance so the UK office are fully aware and can sanction what is needed.

We do not have the specialist staff or medical facilities of a hospice and not all our residents are terminally ill. However the nature of their lives before they came to us resulted in them becoming malnourished and frail and all have long term conditions. We treat all of them as people rather than patients.

Obviously those who require it get the best and most suitable medical treatment we can give, and our aim is to enable them to spend the rest of their lives as comfortably and joyfully as possible, surrounded by friends. We encourage the residents to talk about their past - many have had tragic lives and we endeavour to help them come to terms with what has happened to them. When possible we trace families to enable our residents say their goodbyes, voice their regrets and their thanks, and make their apologies - whatever is appropriate in order that they have peace of mind.

Jacob's practices tolerance and acceptance; we encourage residents to maintain and practice their religion. There are Hindus Muslims and Christians at Jacob's and they like to join each other with their prayers and singing.

The Jacobs ethos is to enable all of the residents to spend the remainder of their lives feeling tranquil and secure, within a normal family atmosphere; to accept and to prepare to leave this world peacefully