RC Delhi South impacts communities

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.

“We keep upgrading the sewing machines to provide women better opportunities,” said club president ­Pramod Agarwal. Two advanced machines were recently provided to the centre to enable the women to learn machine embroidery and other professional techniques, and upgrade their tailoring skills. The NGO helps them get orders if the women decide to set up their own unit, or if they opt for employment, it assists in identifying potential employers.

RC Delhi South has been supporting the Dr Shroff Eye Hospital in Darya Ganj, Delhi, with ophthalmic devices and equipment for over 20 years. In November 2023, the Urmila Khemka Cataract Centre was inaugurated at the hospital campus and the club participated in executing the project which was funded through a CSR grant. “This addition will enhance the hospital’s capacity to perform 6,000 additional surgeries,” he said.

The club revamped the MCD Primary School in Roshanpura – II area. A fresh coat of paint was put on the school building, the equipment on the playground was repaired, and new equipment added, “which really delighted the children,” he said. Around 1,400 students attend this school. The students participated in planting 80 saplings provided by the club to make the school campus green. A smart TV was also installed in the school’s digital classroom.

Close on the heels of inaugurating the refurbished school, the club organised an eye checkup camp for the students and provided spectacles to those who had defective vision. Funds are being raised to provide more facilities to the school; “next on our agenda is to provide wash stations,” the president added.

In another initiative, a cervical cancer vaccination camp was organised for 60 adolescent girls under the care of Nai Disha. “These girls are fully vaccinated with the mandatory two doses,” he said. A similar camp helped vaccinate 230 girls at the Birla Vidya Niketan where the club has sponsored an Interact club. The next dose will be given in June to these students. Prior to the vaccination process, the club had organised an awareness session for the parents and school staff on cervical cancer and how the vaccine provides protection from it. At both the venues, club member Dr Neeraj Bhalla and assistant governor Vandana Bhalla, and Ajay Narayan, secretary of the Rotary Cancer Foundation run by RIDs 3011 and 3012, supported the vaccination process which was undertaken by the BLK-Max Hospital.

On Diwali day, the club members distributed sweet boxes to 1,600 patients and caregivers at the AIIMS Hospital in Delhi.