The Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation has plans to construct a new old age home facility for the senior citizens in the Western division.

While providing an update in Parliament on the condition of the Olden Age Home facility in Lautoka, Minister for Women, Rosy Akbar says she agrees that the condition of the Lautoka Old Age Home is deteriorating.

Akbar adds they have not compromised with the quality of care given to the senior citizens.

“Some years ago, the Implementation Unit of Ministry of Economy did a scoping for renovation work, the building is not in a condition whereby we can inject more money to carry out renovations, it’s very old, like I said the I can assure the house, the quality of service is up to par and we have engaged more carers.”

Akbar says there are three capital projects of which two are on the verge of completion.

“In form of Olden age home in Labasa, approximately 4 million dollars project, it’s on the verge of completion and we are awaiting the completion certificate, we also had the Western Disability center that came at the cost of one million dollars, it’s completed.”

The Minister for Women adds one of the capital projects, namely the construction of Barefoot College is at the progressive stage which comes at the cost of around $4.3 million.