Pitruchaya

The word ‘Pitruchaya’ means ‘shadow of father’. The project was initiated to take care of the homeless, mentally ill, physically ill, and destitute men.

Maher was initially working with women and children. However, when Sr. Lucy traveled, she saw so many needy, destitute, mentally and physically ill men. But in those days Maher did not have a proper place to shelter them. On 29^th Feb 2004, Sr. Lucy started a home for destitute mentally ill women in Manjari.

On 4^th Apr 2011, Sr. Lucy’s friend called her and told her about a man on the streets who was in very bad condition with clothes torn, strong body odor, and dirty hair. Sr. Lucy immediately sent a social worker, a driver, and some older boys from Maher to pick him up from the street. At that time, Maher did not have a proper home for men. So, Sr. Lucy made arrangements for him to live with the older boys in Vatsalyadham premises. The boys cleaned him and gave him medicines based on the doctor’s advice. This was the initiation of the Pitruchaya project.

The first home under Pitruchaya was Karunalaya which was located in Awhalwadi with the older boys. However, keeping men and women on the same premises was not permitted by the authorities. So, all the men in Karunalaya were rehabilitated to their families or other institutions and Maher stopped working with men.

Once again, whenever Sr Lucy and staff were traveling, she would see destitute needy men and felt the urge to help them. One day, Sr. Lucy saw a building that belonged to a closed gas agency and immediately called the owner to share her wish to start working with destitute men and requested to rent the place. The owner, Ms. Melani Fernandis, agreed and gave the house on rent for two years. Sr. Lucy renovated the house to ensure that there were large windows, proper doors, and toilets. The house was inaugurated on 15^th August 2013 by Mr. Raghwendra Kadbol (Film actor), Ms. Melani Fernandis, and Dr. Nicola Pawar. All the village people were invited to the inauguration. Thus Maher, once again, started working for destitute men.

A new home was built in Sanaswadi and the men were shifted to this new home on 10^th March 2020. So far, Maher has helped 454 men through the project. At the moment, 41 men are living in the Sanaswadi home (called Karunalaya).

The gas agency building was used to set up a home for elderly men (project Kinara) and was inaugurated on 10^th March 2021. So far, 57 men have taken shelter in Kinara. 25 elderly men are living in Kinara at the moment.