Holding a pride of place at the transgender award ceremony titled Matram (change in Tamil) hosted by the Rotaract Club of Shri ­Krishnaswamy College for Women in Chennai was the veteran Noori Saleem, a transwoman from Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, who emerged victorious after battling long years of societal pressure, taunting, and all other forms of humiliation and discrimination to create a home for over 300 HIV positive children abandoned by their families because of their infection.

The motive power of Rotary is friendship,” said Paul Harris at the Rotary Convention held in Edinburgh in 1921. The friendships that are forged between Rotarians can be the beginning of great things for our community.

Near the market yard of ­Panvel city in Raigad district of Maharashtra, a two-acre urban forest — Rotary Ghandat (dense in ­Marathi) Jungle — with a park in the front has sprung up, thanks to RC Panvel Central, RID 3131. This green hub has become a centre of attraction for locals and tourists alike.

Rotary Club of Calcutta, RID 3291, in association with the Howrah ­Municipal ­Corporation (HMC), has set up the district’s first blood centre — the HMC Rotary Blood Centre — at Howrah, ­Kolkata. The facility was inaugurated in February by Arup Roy, state minister-in-charge for urban development.

A multipurpose mega service project titled ­Create Hope reached out to over 800 beneficiaries from diverse fields at the Ayana ­Convention Hall, Vijayawada, on the sidelines of the two-day ­district conference of RID 3020 named Sneham (friendship) in January. RC ­Vijayawada Midtown hosted the ­Discon in which 1,200 Rotarians from around 90 clubs took part in the sessions and other events.

On World Diabetes Day (Nov 14) last year, RC SPIC Nagar, RID 3212, in collaboration with Dr Arul’s ­Diabetes Centre in Thoothukudi, organised a ­diabetes awareness camp in the port city. A range of medical examinations including testing blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, HBA1c (test to diagnose type 2 ­diabetes), ­biothesiometry (to detect neuropathy), dental and eye checkup were conducted. Over 500 people availed the services at the camp.

Over 500 individuals with a deformity of their upper limb were fitted with LN4 prosthetic hand at a special camp organised by RC Mangalagiri, RID 3150, at Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh.

For 27 years now, Rotary Club of Uklana Mandi, RID 3090, has been funding the weddings of young women from disadvantaged families in the district. The Rotarians also shower the newly-weds with gifts such as utensils, mattresses, clothes, furniture and other household ­articles essential to start a home. The weddings are conducted on ­January 14 every year, commemorating Makara Sankaranti, says club secretary Sugan Chand Goyal.

On a unique and happy Sunday morning in December, RC Bharuch, RI District 3060, and R K Hospital, in partnership with several organisations in this Gujarat city, organised a walkathon for a group of 300 people. The title of the march was Chalo saath kadam badhae (Let’s walk together).

A delegation of six Rotarians from RI district 5610, USA, made a two-day visit to ­Gorakhpur in Oct 2023

In the past seven years RC Delhi South, RID 3011, a 55-year-old club with 79 members, has empowered nearly 2,000 women with a new career in tailoring through its vocational training centre established in association with the NGO Nai Disha Educational and Cultural Society on the NGO’s campus. The club has equipped the centre with 20 sewing machines. Presently, 40 women from less privileged families are undergoing the course.