A new girls’ toilet block in Virudhunagar

A well-executed global grant project to set up a girls’ toilet block, along with other facilities, at a government-aided school in Rajapalayam, an industrial town in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu, has boosted the morale of its students and teachers. “When we celebrated Republic Day at the school, happy faces and greetings made us rejoice,” says N Gopalakrishnan, from RC Rajapalayam Kings City, RID 3212, and chairman, District Stewardship Subcommittee.

Every three months, the club’s grants committee will be visiting N A Annappa Raja Memorial HS School to inspect the Rotary facilities — a modern toilet block for girls, an RO plant, two interactive boards with touch screen, a Wi-Fi link, a gym; and a range of sports equipment and musical instruments — set up at a total cost of ₹48.57 lakh. The GG project was initiated during the tenure of PDG P N B ­Murugadoss (2020–21) “when our charter president John Selvaraj got a request from school headmaster A Ramesh for a new ­sanitation block to replace the dilapidated toilet which the girls found embarrassing to use,” he says.

After a meeting the grants panel had with the school’s representatives, an application for the GG was made. Murugadoss released $17,500 from the DDF and arranged $30,000 as Directed Gift from Rtn S Maheswaran from RC Sivakasi, of which only $15,000 was used. Donations and contributions from eight clubs of RID 3212 were also received. The TRF ­guideline of one toilet for 25 girls in the new block was followed and RC Fargo Moorhead AM,
RID 5580, US, was the global partner.

Tamilselvi (Class 9) says, “the new ­toilet block is posh and neat; and the washbasins help us clean our hands easily during lunch. Now I enjoy attending school.” Headmaster Ramesh is confident of enrolling more girls with the new toilets. There are 820 boys, 630 girls in this school. “The two 65 inches interactive boards will facilitate digital education, while the sports and musical instruments will encourage them in extracurricular activity.”

Club president B Kumar Raja is happy that “we have done a GG project at a ­deserving school with students whose parents are mostly working in textile mills and factories.” DG V R Muthu inaugurated the new facilities in the presence of PDG Murugadoss, district grant subcommittee chair A S P ­Arumugaselvan, school secretary N R  Krishnamoorthy and AG A K Baskaran.