Note From President Shernaz Vakil
ROTARY YEAR 21-22 OCV
This has been a year of transition and uncertainty.
We began the year amidst the second wave of the pandemic and, in fact, on the day of my installation, I discovered I was Covid positive.
To ensure we kept our membership intact and engaged, we reduced fees to all members, but also exempted those members who had achieved the status of 100 years in age and service to the Club, from paying club fees.
Our TRF contribution has reached $250000 and inching towards our goal of $300000, thanks to the continued generosity of our members.
We started a Satellite club for the young (ages 21 to 35 years), adding 15 new members, besides 9 members directly into our Club.
Since then, it has been a few weeks of opening up in November and early December and closing down again because of Omnicron.
In spite of this our committees have worked hard to continue to do the good work we do and keep our commitments to the communities we serve.
None of our projects have actually shut down completely due to the pandemic, we have valiantly carried on online for many of our projects and thankfully, there has been minimal disruption.
Unfortunately, the greatest disruption has been for the children. It has been very difficult to keep them engaged online specifically because of their circumstances at home.
We gave out 160 tablets and data plans to help the children attend. However, they have missed the social contact of friends and teachers. The joy we saw as schools opened a few weeks ago says it all.
At our Bhavishya Yaan schools, though the functioning was lacklustre, we were able to reinvent our mandate this year and refocus on spoken English Math and Lifeskills. Here we relooked at various options and spoke to 4 or 5 professional partners.
From there we chose the Nandi Foundation and commissioned a pilot project for the Colaba school for standards 8th and 9th. So, all secondary classes could be moved to Nandi Foundation (Dr. Reddy) depending on the outcome of the pilot.
The pandemic has thrown up huge inequities in our society, and this year our focus has been on two projects, both providing livelihood to two separate communities rural, as well as urban
This year our Rural Village Development Committee together with our partners Chirag were able to provide water light and livelihoods to 18 villages and hamlets. We have irrigated several acres of land, provided drinking water, digitised schools, provided lighting, and transformed the lives of hundreds of villagers.
In addition, we are supporting the Vaidu tribal community with rations, nutrition for the girl child, adult literacy, children’s education, etc.
In the medical space, our centres at Talwada, IWA, Cotton Green continued to provide free service through most parts of the pandemic.
In smaller committees like urban heritage, we were able to work on a project for the restoration of ancient maps of Bombay, and hope to exhibit at the Asiatic Library in April.
We continued our good work with the elderly and provided joy and encouragement through our Anand Yaan centres, with a new one opening in Alibaug. The trip to Alibaug was a happy fellowship where we almost forgot we were there to inaugurate the Elders Day Care Centre. As was Mahableshwar, a joyous return to the hills and superb hospitality of our members.
Next week we plan to visit Pingeman, the village paid for and scripted by our Club. Together with a visit to Talwada to commemorate the life of a stalwart of our Club.
We are now looking forward to Kashmir… a trip that promises to be exceptional as we cavort amongst the tulips!
We recently reopened meetings in person in mid-February and have planned a flurry of fellowships and visits to our projects. We have a few weeks to go before the year closes, and many promises to keep!
With the usual enthusiasm and energy of our team, we will get there and fulfil what we hoped to!
— President Shernaz Vakil