President Sonya Mehta seeks to build a tradition of participation
Dr. Sonya Mehta
Assimilation, consolidation and participation. These are the three areas on which Dr. Sonya Mehta intends to focus during her term as the President of the Rotary Club of Bombay. Of these, Sonya says, she is most keen that her legacy be one of strong Rotarian participation. Her goals and benchmarks are not set with an eye to the amount of money raised, awards won or the number of projects completed. It?s about meaningful change and engagement.
You are a member of this Club,? she says, ?and we need your input and your commitment. You may be excused from meeting the attendance rules, but you are not excused from being a member, and being a member carries with it all there responsibilities of being a Rotarian.?
Sonya wants to ensure that every member feels welcome and valued and contributes to the Club?s activities, whether they can spare two hours or twenty. ?Members in different stages of their lives are sometimes better able to give money rather than time,? she concedes, ?but I am again the mentality of ?I give you money, and you excuse me from all participation?. You cannot pay to be a Rotarian.? Sonya?s vision for her yea is a combination of strengthening existing projects t make them more effective and meaningful and introducing some exciting new ones. For instance, the Club runs training programmes inassociation with the YMCA for poor, young women. Sonya wants to expand these so that the training is not restricted to ?traditional,
women?s stay-at-home activities.?
?I want them to learn more than that. For example, I want them to learn to drive,? she explains passionately. ?I want to prepare them for careers. How much can you earn from embroidery or mehendi? How much independence can you achieve? They can learn to be private chauffeurs; they can learn to drive taxies; they can be nursing assistants; something that gives them a degree of independence and better sources of income.
We need to really change their lives.?
Similarly, under Bhavishya- Yaan, Sonya wants to build upon what Rotary already does to help students pass the SSC. ?We need to develop programmes to continue to provide mentorship and support to the many who move on to college,? she says. There is also a pilot project on using e-learning that will seek to supplement traditional classroom curricula. ?We will start to implement e-learning as early as in Standard 5,? she says. ?If this is successful, we can make a lasting difference.? Talwada, through the ADMC, HTEC and the Junior College, will continue to anchor the Club?s rural outreach. ?The medical centers need constant maintenance and modernization, she notes, ?and we are
committed to providing the best care possible.? She is also keen to expand upon the work of the Environment Committee. ?They have done such a fabulous job at the museum, and that?s only the start,? she says. ?There is so much that can be done; the possibilities are limitless.? There are five new initiative that Sonya has been working on. ?Each of these reflects the passion and interest of our members in working to make a difference and I am buoyed by their enthusiasm,? she says.
A new project close to her heart is Rotary?s partnership with the International Women?s Association for the revitalizing of a clinic in South Bombay for the health of women and children. Anyone who knows Sonya knows that one of the issues that she is most passionate about is the empowerment of women. ?I think that this partnership provides Rotary with a platform to launch health programmes targeted to urban maternal health and infant nutrition,? she says. ?Prevention is so much more effective and impactful than struggling to rectify problems that we have already allowed to come into existence.? None of these new ventures are one-year commitments. Future Presidents have been brought on board for all of them. As Sonya says, Nothing that hopes to make an impact can be a short term or a one-year project. My predecessor and my two successors are all on board. To make meaningful change, we have to be committed and connected in a continuous manner.?