Maternal and child care must for healthy communities

Dear Rotary leaders,

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

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 have played a great role in the global crisis of Covid-19; both during the crisis and after it.

Do your bit by ensuring and advocating vaccination and maintaining social distancing, the only known way to control Covid. Our job will be extremely important to serve the community which has been battered mentally, physically and financially. I would urge the clubs and Rotarians to help in any which way they can.

Maternal and child health

Children’s access to healthcare is important to children themselves, to their families, as well as to society at large. Healthcare can influence children’s physical and emotional health, growth and development and their capacity to reach their full potential as adults.

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 newborns, access to essential medical services, and supporting trained healthcare providers for mothers and their children.

So please make high-quality healthcare available to vulnerable mothers and children so that they can live longer and grow stronger. It bears repeating that women are central to healthy families, and ultimately healthy communities… and that children are the future of any nation.

Annapurna Project of RILM

RILM recognised the need for providing nutritious meals to underprivileged children and under the Annapurna project, in partnership with Indian Food Banking Network and KFC, has provided 10,35,700 meals to schoolchildren in seven schools in Bengal in the last three years. It’s a project worth ₹60 lakh which continues to provide these meals on a daily basis.

Children are our future, I would urge all clubs to take up child health and nutrition projects for disadvantaged children. It is projects like these which strengthen my belief in the capabilities of Rotarians for doing good in the world. God bless… God speed.

Kamal Sanghvi,
RI Director, 2019-21