SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The Cou­va home for the aged opened its new $1.3 mil­lion wing on Fri­day at Grant Street. The ful­ly fur­nished struc­ture was do­nat­ed by Mona Roop­nar­ine and is named the Ashraf and Cleopa­tra Sanc­tu­ary for Se­nior Cit­i­zens. Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh said he was pleased with the fa­cil­i­ty and not­ed that peo­ple should start look­ing at homes for el­der­ly peo­ple with "a dif­fer­ent eye."

He said re­tire­ment homes must not be seen as run-down fa­cil­i­ties where the el­der­ly in so­ci­ety are left to end their days but as places where peo­ple can en­joy their re­tire­ment peace­ful­ly. In­dars­ingh said the el­der­ly should be ap­pre­ci­at­ed be­cause of their great con­tri­bu­tion in de­vel­op­ing the coun­try.