The Shelter for Urban Homeless Cell (SUHC) of the Greater Chennai Corporation and the police have reintegrated two women, who were rescued from the streets during the Cyclone Nivar, with their respective families.
The SUHC team had rescued 183 homeless persons from different parts of the city on November 24, 25 and 26 during the rain brought by Cyclone Nivar. Of these, 109 were men, 72 were women and two were children and they were housed in 54 shelters across Chennai.
“We wanted to reintegrate the homeless we rescued. We have reunited two women with their families,” said Asha Parekh Nandini, city-level coordinator, SUHC.
Philomena, 50, was rescued on November 25 from Purasawalkam. She was sitting outside a shop. “We interacted with her and found that she did not know her address or the way to her house. Hence, we rescued her and admitted her to the shelter in Egmore which caters to the people with psycho-social needs,” said Ms. Asha.
Meanwhile, her family came to Purasawalkam looking for Ms. Philomena and a missing message was circulated. The SUHC staff managed to trace her sister and reunited her with her family.
Saratha,70, was found sitting on the platform in Broadway on November 26. She told the staff that she forgot the way to her sister’s house. She was taken to the elderly women shelter on T.T.K. Road.
“We get missing complaints daily from the police. We found Ms. Saratha’s name in it and alerted the police. We managed to trace her family and reunited her,” added Ms. Asha.
Efforts are on to reunite the others too.
