Magnanimous Rotarians
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” is an old saying.
It’s a time of great stress and uncertainty. It’s also a moment in time when the work we’re doing is most critical. We Rotarians play a great role in the global crisis of COVID-19, both during the crisis and after it is over.
Do your bit by ensuring and advocating social distancing, the only known way to avoid getting this virus. In the coming days, our job will be extremely important to serve the community that has been battered mentally, physically and financially. I would urge the clubs and Rotarians to help in all ways possible.
Maternal and child health
An estimated 5.9 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate healthcare, and poor sanitation — all of which can be prevented by providing immunisation and antibiotics to babies, access to essential medical services, and support to trained healthcare providers for mothers and children.
Please make high-quality healthcare available to vulnerable mothers and children so they can live longer and grow stronger. It bears repeating that women are central to healthy families, and ultimately healthy communities, and children are the future of any nation.
Child care
Recently I was in Raipur to inaugurate an operation theatre and ICU at the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital. I commend the members of RC Raipur Greater for curating this immense humanitarian project for “saving little hearts” — surgeries for children with congenital heart diseases. I congratulate PDG Harjit Singh Hura and DG Ranjit Saini for their resolve to see this through.
Sri Sathya Sai Hospital performs these surgeries free of cost and to aid them in this noble cause, I gave a clarion call to the Rotarians of the district to partially sponsor the surgeries with a cash contribution of Rs 25,000 per child. The Rotarians responded magnanimously and over 300 surgeries were instantly sponsored. A whopping ₹75 lakh was raised in 10 minutes.
It is projects like these which strengthen my belief in the capability of Rotarians to do good in the world.
God bless and Godspeed.
Kamal Sanghvi,
RI Director, 2019-21
