Like the Big Heart Foundation, Sharjah has a big heart. It cares not only for its citizens, but also for expatriates and visitors. Improving the plight of the aged is very much on its radar: it is specially concerned about the elderly and the sick, and those who, for some reason or the other, have no family member around to take care of them.

In this respect, Sharjah has doubled down and enhanced its welfare measures owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on the directives of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to look after the aged and meet their needs, the Sharjah Municipality announced that the elderly in Sharjah would be exempted from public parking fees.

The elderly would be provided free annual subscriptions that allow them to park in all the city’s car parks at all times.

The initiative was launched by the municipality as part of its ongoing initiatives to support the elderly and other groups of the society and the emirate’s vision in this field as a model for age-friendly cities, Thabet Al Tarifi, Director General of the Sharjah Municipality, said.

Free subscriptions would be issued for as many as 3,000 elderly people on the municipality’s website starting from Jan.19 at an estimated value of Dhs7 million, he said.

Meanwhile, Khalid Bin Falah Al Suwaidi, Assistant Director General for Customer Service Sector, explained that this initiative reflects the municipality’s keenness to look after the elderly, meet their needs and overcome all the obstacles.

This is not the only move that Sharjah has done to make life comfortable for the elderly. The emirate has also launched the home vaccination initiative for the elderly. Family members can book an appointment for home vaccination for elderly citizens on the 800700 toll-free number.

The Sharjah Department of Social Services said that it has begun receiving applications for vaccination of COVID-19 for senior citizens, including the differently-abled, mentally disturbed and their families at home. The Department has completed the training of the medical staff in cooperation with the primary healthcare centres on the approved medical procedures for vaccination in all cities of the emirate, where the home vaccination service will be provided. It is not just the elderly who are taken care of. Afaf Ibrahim Al Marri, Head of the Department of Social Services, member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Sharjah, said that through the Department of Services for senior citizens, differently-abled, psychiatric patients and their families will receive the service in Sharjah. “We encourage all members of the community to get the vaccine.”

The Social Services Department branches are in Al Dhaid, Al Madam, Al Bataih, Mlieha, Khorfakkan, Kalba, Dibba Al Hisn, and Al Hamriya.

A report last year said the mobile clinics unit under the Home Care Department at Sharjah Social Services Department, SSSD, provided over 300 treatment and health services, with field trips to elderly, bed-ridden and differently-abled people at homes in the Emirate of Sharjah and its cities. Kholoud Abdullah Al Ali, Director of the Home Care Department, said that the mobile clinics, which have three units – medical unit, physiotherapy unit and dental unit – reach the elderly, bedridden and the differently-abled at their homes. She indicated that in case the patient’s condition called for a consultation, immediate communication was established through direct video, and if necessary, the patient transferred to the hospital.

All this is because the leaders are very concerned about the uplift of their citizens. They are wellsprings of magnanimity and looking after the people’s wellbeing is the central theme of their policy.