Meet your Governors

Aiming big in membership growth, global grant projects

He is banking on membership growth that will help his district to raise more funds and take up high-profile projects. At present, the district has 139 clubs with 6,389 Rotarians. “We will be starting 32 clubs and inducting over 1,500 new members with five per cent net growth in women’s membership. At present, women constitute 19 per cent of our total members,” says Rajesh Agarwal. He is confident of opening 50 new Rotaract, over 30 new Interact clubs and 30 new RCCs in the district

All the clubs were instructed to conduct RYLA in a grand manner. Happy Schools will be taken up in 100 government schools, 500 handwash stations will be installed and e-learning classrooms will be set up at senior secondary schools (up to Class 12). In addition, 50 gender-segregated toilets will be built in these schools. He has applied for a global grant to set up a skin bank at the Sawai Man Singh ­Hospital, Jaipur. “The clubs will hold menstrual hygiene seminars and awareness sessions and sanitary vending machines will be installed at the gram panchayats and primary health centres,” he explains. A dialysis centre with ten machines will come up at the New Medical College Hospital, Kota.

While GG projects worth $150,000 are waiting for approval, “we will be submitting more such projects worth $500,000 in the coming months seeking global grants.” On TRF giving, his target is $1 million, of which $200,000 will be for the Annual Fund. In 2000, he joined RC Kota inspired by the then club president Chandrakanta Mehta who mentored him in his initial days in Rotary.

Covid has given a divine year for us to excel in Rotary projects

With a robust sense of optimism, he calls his tenure as district governor ‘divine year’ for the Covid pandemic has “taught us how to think differently, in the face of adversity, to plan and do projects. There are many challenges, but we are unstoppable, with our thinking and service patterns having changed forever,” says Dr Sandeep Kadam. He has labelled his clubs and Rotarians ‘Josh’ — joy of serving humanity.

Kadam has taken up the prevention of drug addiction in a big way through webinars. In the presence of RI President Holger Knaack and RIPE Shekhar Mehta, the first leg titled ­Disconnect was held that had a session with former cricketer Kapil Dev. Through social media, the webinar reached out to 79,000 people. In the next phase, the district reached out to 16,000 healthcare professionals. “A volunteer force will engage one lakh school and college students on de-addiction.” A Rotary helpline will also offer counselling.

A village adoption programme will cover 60 villages to begin with. When he took over as DG on July 1, the district had 90 clubs with membership at 3,206, and he wants to “achieve a sizeable growth” during his tenure.  In TRF giving too, he is hopeful of exceeding the previous year’s figure.

He joined Rotary after successfully treating a patient, an employee of a Rotarian, who had a crushed right lower ankle and “was on the verge of dying due to heavy blood loss.” Seeing his selfless service, he was invited to become a Rotarian as and he joined RC Thane North End in April 1996.

He wants to add 25,000 Rotaractors

Emphasis is being given to the Friendship Pairing Project in which a strong club partners with a weak club for joint execution of projects. “I have identified the pairing clubs for exchanging ideas and culture. This project is a must for clubs to get the DG citation,” says ­Hanmanth Reddy.

Reddy’s dream project is setting up breastfeeding kiosks at public places. “Eight kiosks were installed and 57 clubs have taken up this maternity project in right earnest.” He wants to induct 700 new members, taking the total membership beyond 4,000 from the present 3,311. He wants to add 25 new clubs to the existing 88; 250 new Rotaract clubs to the existing 33 clubs, thus adding an additional 25,000 Rotaractors by June 2021.

Fifty Rotarians monitor the newly-opened Covid Plasma Bank at the Challa Rotary Blood Bank. RC Guntur will be supplying blood components to a mobile Rotary Blood Bank through a global grant. The Rotary Dialysis Centre in Secunderabad will get six new machines through a GG project worth $1,44,000. “We will be completing 26 Happy Schools projects through a GG this year,” says Reddy. On TRF giving, he is targeting $1 million. Back in 2002, when the then DG Ravi Vadlamani was visiting RC Armoor, Reddy was inspired by the governor to join Rotary.

A Rotary Nagar for migrant families planned at Siliguri

If things go as planned, a Rotary Nagar will come up at Siliguri, a vital junction linking the northeast to the mainland, and it will have over 1,000 houses for migrant families. “We are in talk with the West Bengal government to acquire land. It will have residential space, a school, a primary healthcare centre and a skill development centre,” explains Subhasish Chatterjee.

In a touching gesture, Rotarians visited the houses of 1,217 teachers to present them with ­Shiksha Samman Awards, as “most of them are aged and can’t move out during the pandemic.”  A blood bank at Silchar will benefit the people of ­Mizoram, the Barak Valley of Assam, and the ­Sylhet district of Bangladesh. “This GG project worth $150,000 was implemented by four Silchar clubs in partnership with a Bangladesh club. The four Silchar clubs had contributed $50,000 for the project.” The district is setting up Covid ICUs in Dibrugarh (Assam) and Shillong through a GG project. Next, he plans to do a cervical vaccination project through a GG. For TRF giving, his target is $400,000; in membership, he targets 25 per cent growth, with women doubling to 20 per cent. The district will also have 12 new clubs, six satellite clubs and 20 Rotaract clubs during his tenure. He was introduced to Rotary through a family friend, a Rotarian, who invited him to a DG’s event in Jalpaiguri and “I was made a charter president of a Rotaract club in 1988.”

He will focus on Happy Schools

Despite challenges, he is pushing for membership growth this Rotary year. From 2,620 Rotarians across 72 clubs on July 1, his target is 3,500 Rotarians and 87 clubs.  Rotaract will grow from 250 at present to 350-plus across 25 Rotaract clubs, up from 11 clubs the previous year. “The focus will be on attracting more youth and institution-based Rotaract clubs,” he says.

Three global grant projects worth $110,000 for installing Covid equipment at Raipur and Jabalpur government hospitals are under implementation. “We are waiting for the sanction of GGs worth $300,000 and a few more projects under GG worth $250,000 are in the pipeline.” Having a vast tribal belt spread across Chhattisgarh, parts of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, Mohanty has requested the clubs to take up sanitation projects in government schools.

First, the district will take up WinS programmes in 10 government schools in a backward area near Rourkela. “We will follow this up with 100 Happy Schools, 20 in tribal areas,” says Mohanty.

In TRF giving, he has set a target of $200,000, of which $100,000 will go to the Annual Fund. In 1992, as a non-Rotarian, he used to sell donation tickets for a fundraiser at RC Rourkela Midtown, his home club, for meeting the expenses of its children’s hospital. “Inspired by its service motto,
I joined Rotary,” he recalls.