El Asilo de Ancianosis a seniors home in Mazatlan, Mexico. It is run by 3 elderly nuns who should be cared for instead of caring for their 27 charges as a charitable calling. The big-ticket item they require is a service elevator or chair lift so they can make better use of the rooms on the second floor of their building. This is where the men quarters are located.
They do have a long ramp as well as stairs
but it is difficult and dangerous to push the wheelchairs up and down
the ramp. The residents are people who do not have family to care for
them and do not have any means to care for themselves. This is the only
option available in Mazatlan to people with no means. A very basic
elevator is at the top of sister Josephina´s wish list so that they can
take in more residents.
Why they need an elevator
The ramp, which goes from
the main level to the upper level where the men´s rooms are, is long and
steep. There is danger in bringing a wheelchair down if it gets away
from you; or worse, on a rainy day when the ramp becomes very slippery.
It is physically exhausting pushing a wheelchair full of a 160 pound
man up the steep ramp – especially if you are an 80 year old woman!
There is no paid staff that stays the night –
just the residents and the nuns who live there. If they need to get a
wheelchair patient upstairs, they go across the street to the park to
see who is there and ask for assistance – not the safest of measures but
necessary to get the job done.
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