Meet your Governors

Rotary contests woo youngsters

Youth forums are active to make Rotary attractive to college students and young professionals. FIRE (family involved Rotary entertainment) is an art competition where prelim rounds are held at club level, before a grand district finale is held in January. Likewise, RISE — Rotary Involved Sports Entertainment — is organised to woo sports talent.

Sumithran hopes to add 700 new Rotarians and seven new clubs, so that membership crosses 6,000 by June-end. A dialysis centre (GG: $68,000) was added to a palliative care facility in Thiruvananthapuram; “and 10 GG projects worth ₹5 crore are in the pipeline,” he says. Project Sathrangi (rainbow) has conducted 2,300 early detection-cum-awareness camps on disorders such as heart diseases, diabetes, renal problems, cancer etc. Mental health counselling is also given at these special camps. Financial support of ₹97 lakh was given to 90 patients under Project Sathrangi; and “we will reach out to 30 more patients, and 500 more Sathrangi camps will be held,” he adds.

Under Project Sahayi (support) crutches, callipers, walking and hearing aids worth over ₹2 crore were given to 800 disabled; and “such aids will be given to 100 more beneficiaries till June.” 1BHK houses (100 houses at ₹6 lakh each) are being given to homeless families under Project Abhayam (home). He aims to collect $1 million for TRF. This surgeon has done 250 heart surgeries for Rotary projects after he joined it in 2006.

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Club prez must sync with governor

Friendship, fellowship and social service drew Shankar Reddy to Rotary in 1994. “I was influenced by late PDG A V Achar as well as PDG Ravi ­Vadlamani, experts in conceiving mega service projects,” he says. He is focused on nurturing club leadership, as “I impress upon clubs to select their presidents-elect, nominee and designate, well in advance so that they can develop a rapport with their respective DGs, and fix long-term goals. This will also enable incoming presidents to take part in district events with clear targets in mind,” explains Reddy.

With an ambitious target of 20 per cent net membership growth, which comes to 800 members, he has inducted half this number already. At present, there are 4,370 Rotarians across 112 clubs in Telangana and two revenue districts of Andhra. A check dam (GG: $500,000) at Vinukonda village in Palnadu district of Andhra will be inaugurated in May. “The watershed project will irrigate 150 acres of farmland, and boost rural income.” Medical equipment worth ₹1 crore was given to Niloufer Children’s Hospital and MNJ Cancer Hospital, both in Hyderabad, under two GG projects. His target for TRF-giving is $600,000.

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A checklist to strengthen clubs

The tech-savvy couple, Jayashree and her spouse Tanmay Mohanty, was invited to attend a Rotary club meeting in 2008. “We were impressed by the club’s deliberations and after reaching home, decided to join Rotary,” recalls Jayashree. She has drafted a checklist for her clubs on membership growth, retention and project activities. Each Rotarian has to put in least 20 volunteer hours.

With 4,000 members across 115 clubs, she has surpassed 10 per cent net growth, having added 400 new Rotarians. “I hope to induct 200 more by June-end. Out of the targeted 10 new clubs, five were formed already in unrepresented areas in Odisha,” she adds. Project ­Samman will set up seven privacy centres (₹3.75 lakh each) at bus stands for lactating women to feed their babies, get counselling and nutrition kits. The first two Samman Centres were set up in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

Her other notable projects include a mammography centre (GG: $670,000) at Balasore and Rotary Diagnostic Centre (GG: $450,000) near Bhubaneswar. “We got a GG approval for a paediatric ICU unit (GG: $38,000) at the GH, Kalahandi.” For TRF-giving, she aims to collect $275,000.

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A new vision for Rotaract clubs

Rotary must focus on mobilising youth power by concentrating on Rotaract and Interact clubs, says ­Sundararajan. “But a lot of our Rotaract clubs discontinued after the mandatory dues kicked in. Now, we have added 20 new Rotaract clubs taking the total number to 70 in our district and doubled the Interact clubs to 120,” he says.

With 4,950 Rotarians, including the newly inducted 100 members, another 150 will join Rotary; and three more clubs will be chartered, taking its count to 98. He is working on three GG projects — donating new equipment and furniture to GH, Kotagiri (₹35 lakh) and GH, Pollachi (₹45 lakh); and flagging off a science van (₹30 lakh) for school students.

Every Tuesday, 40 clubs are providing rich food and nutrition kits to pregnant women at the state antenatal check-up camps at the PHCs and government hospitals. Mother’s milk is donated to the human milk banks in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Pollachi for babies in the neonatal ICUs. His target for TRF is $600,000. Having joined Rotary in 1991, he has taken part in 10 Rotary medical missions to Uganda, Nigeria, Uttar Pradesh (seven times) and Kashmir (Feb 2024).