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Unfolding Stories
Lifting lives: Perwakos' elderly home offers haven for trans women
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Creating a haven: Persatuan Waria Kota Surabaya (Coalition of Surabaya trans organizations), or Perwakos, has set up an elderly home for trans women in Tambaksari, North Surabaya. (Courtesy of Febby Damayanti) (Personal collection/Courtesy of Febby Damayanti)
The plight of elderly trans women is often neglected, but Perwakos aims to change this with its community-run home.
When they found Kajad, the elderly trans woman was living a life of squalor in the slums of Surabaya, East Java.
“She’s ill, can barely walk and her family had abandoned her completely. She needed medicine and a proper place to recover,” said Febby Damayanti, a trans community activist.
Something had to be done, or Kajad would simply disappear into the city’s underbelly like many other transgender people.
The needs of Indonesia’s senior trans people are unfortunately being sidelined amid the more vocal narratives on the country’s many challenges and issues. But Kajad’s story is far from uncommon. Just like members of the greater transgender community, senior trans people face discrimination, neglect and abandonment, and financial uncertainty at every turn.
As trans people become older, more frail and unable to work, they find that there is no social safety net or protection in place for them.
Persatuan Waria Kota Surabaya (Coalition of Surabaya trans organizations), or Perwakos, means to change this.
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