A resident at the home relaxes on her bed.

EXTRA facilities are being planned at a home for disadvantaged elderly people in Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan township, the head of its management committee said.

The plans for a hospital and more residential buildings had been prompted by demand for extra places at the Shwe Than Lwin Home for the Aged, said U Ant Kyaw.

The home was established five years ago at the initiative of U Ant Kyaw when he was director-general of the Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development, a position from which he retired in early July.

The home has become a haven for elderly people who have experienced homelessness or financial difficulties.

Many of the residents were sent to the home by the Yangon City Development Committee and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

The home also shelters needy retired teachers and public servants who had nowhere else to live.

The home, about seven miles from downtown Yangon, is for people aged 60 and above.

Four single-storey residential buildings in the five-acre compound are occupied by 92 residents, including 73 women, who are given physical, emotional, moral and social support.

The home’s oldest resident, Daw Aye Kyin, 93, has lived there for more than two years.

“I don’t need to worry about food, shelter and clothing here,” Daw Aye Kyin told Myanmar Times.

Daw Aye Kyin and some other residents were sent to the home by children who were unable to care for them.

“My son never comes to see me because he thinks that it is shameful and embarrassing for him,” Daw Aye Kyin said.

“The staff here treat me like a close relative,” she said.

The home is named in honour of the Shwe Than Lwin Construction Co., Ltd., which funded its buildings as well as two cars and an ambulance.

The home’s daily running costs and staff salaries are covered by interest earned on a K64 million fund, U Ant Kyaw said.

U Ant Kyaw said a similar residence was established at Kyaukse in Mandalay Division in 2001 for 100 aged needy people from upper Myanmar. The home, which was also funded by the Shwe Than Lwin Co., Ltd., shelters about 40 people.

He said work has also begun on similar residences at Myittha in Mandalay Division and Kyauktan in Yangon Division.

One of the best known residences for the elderly in Yangon is the Hninsigone Home for the Aged, in Bahan township. Residents at the home, for people aged 70 and older, are admitted on the basis of recom-mendations from community leaders.

The home has 226 residents, aged from 70 to 104.

Department of Population figures show that those aged above 60 account for about eight per cent of the country’s 54 million people.