Connecting with the Foundation
Samarpan — The Rotary Foundation seminar — was organised at Alleppey by D 3211. Over 850 Rotarians including Major Donors and AKS members attended the event. It was led by the District TRF Chair K Babumon and inaugurated by Kerala’s Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac.
DG Suresh Mathew highlighted the District’s various endeavours towards the welfare of the community. “We are supporting the State Government’s ‘Ardram’ initiative by providing infrastructure and equipment for hospitals, having recently completed the renovation of a 4,500 sq ft women’s ward in a hospital.” The district will be building toilets in 40 schools with ₹1 crore grant approved from TRF and has mobilised ₹25 lakh for setting up a mammography unit, besides having digitalised another unit at a cost of ₹1.3 crore. The district has been quite proactive in performing global grant projects and has availed TRF funds worth nearly ₹7 crore for various projects in the last five years, he added.
Mathew signed an MoU with Rtn Dr Sumitran of Padmati Hospitals to perform 100 heart surgeries free of cost for the needy, under the project Hridayatalam.
EMGA K P Nagesh elaborated on various aspects of TRF — the fund flow, spendable earnings and ways to support the Foundation. Saying that only 20 per cent Rotarians and 60 per cent clubs are contributing to TRF, he called upon the delegates to rise generously to meet the goal of $2.025 billion by 2025.
Shakuntala Raha, Manager-International Fundraising, RISAO, explained the features of the new funding model, district and global grants and how the grant application from clubs are reviewed and processed. “Sustainability is the watchword. The project has to continue beyond the years of funding and enhance goodwill and international understanding,” she said.
While DG Jawarilal Jain, D 3231, spoke on the ‘Joy of giving’, PDG Ulhas Kolhatkar, D 3142, gave an informative presentation on the ‘Foundation of life’. DRFC Chair and AKS member G A George extolled the privileges of being an AKS member and the happiness and mental satisfaction it gives.
The chief guest lauded the Rotarians for their “wide range of projects” that has “certainly given new meaning to the lives of several underprivileged families” across the State. He launched the concept of pesticide-free rice, an initiative of the district under the name, REAP (Rotary Empowered Agricultural Product), where the district, under the chairmanship of Bijumon Kurian and Advisor PDG K P Ramachandran Nair, will cultivate organic rice in 136 acres of land.
Two new AKS members — Sudhi Jabbar of RC Kazhakuttom and Gangadhara Iyer, President of RC Alleppey East — were felicitated at the seminar, in addition to 43 Major Donors and some Endowment donors.
