Saroj Lal was an inspiration to me and many other women. She and I met more than 30 years ago in 1989, at a conference, where we were discussing unmet needs of minority ethnic older people. We were both passionate about the social injustice being experienced by BAME older people and wanted to do something about the lack of specialist services – particularly in Leith and Edinburgh.
We joined forces to try to do something practical to address the problem. Saroj was fantastic at “persuading” people to help. We developed a number of initiatives including Milan Senior Welfare Organisation in 1990 – the first day service for both male and female older people from the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Mauritian communities in the south-east of Scotland.
