Rotary magic at a Pune rural school

It was during a casual visit to a relative’s house at Ravadi village, near Pune, by a Rotarian that led to a much-needed makeover for the Krantiveer Vasudev Balwant Phadke Vidyalaya, a Marathi medium school in Bhor taluk. With no compound wall, broken toilet fittings and a rough, unusable playground, the school presented a decrepit look. As the morale of students and teachers was at its nadir, school principal Ravindra Pawar requested Alka Rode, a member of RC Pune Sports City, RID 3131, for urgent help to build a compound fence for the school to ward off anti-social elements freely entering the premises, and creating a nuisance.

Alka connected with her club president Sadhana Joshi and narrated the plight of this government-aided school with 260 students from Class 5–12, who had to study under such deplorable conditions. Following this, a five-member need-assessment team led by Sadhana, including the club’s primary contact Sandesh Savant and project director Brij Sethi, made a recce of the school and interacted with the principal and the teachers. The Pune club took up renovation with urgency in tie-up with Bengaluru-based Momentive Performance Materials which gave a CSR grant of ₹16.8 lakh out of the project cost of ₹19 lakh. The balance amount came from RC Bhor (₹50,000) and a district grant (₹1.8 lakh)

While six e-learning systems preloaded with course software were installed for Class 5–10, the software was upgraded for the existing IT systems for Class 11–12. “We put up five desktops for students to prepare for scholarship exams, and a 65-inch interactive panel at the library for revision classes and special events,” says Sadhana. The IT vendors trained the teachers on how to hold digital classes “which will provide a whole new experience for students.”

Barbed-wire fence

Instead of a concrete wall, a barbed-wire mesh with iron rods was erected to fence the school premises, and provide security for the students and teachers. Now, saplings will be planted all along the wire fence to provide a green cover and second layer of security, while enhancing the aesthetic look of the school.

Hard rocks and sharp stones were dug out from the ground and a smooth playground (₹2.20 lakh) was prepared for the students. Sports equipment worth ₹3 lakh for 10 indoor and outdoor games including track and field events was provided, a 3KW solar panels for back-up power was installed and two toilet blocks (for girls and boys) were given a makeover. The water line was also replaced.

Said the grateful principal Pawar: “The e-learning systems, new playground and sports equipment are all put to good use by our students. Thanks a lot for completing all the work in time, and for the books you have donated to the library.” PT master Gorakhnath Adhikari is confident that the students will win a lot of medals at the district-level sports tournament, given the new facilities and equipment.

Smokeless stoves

In a joint endeavour with Shashwat Trust, a local NGO, the club distributed smokeless stoves to 1,775 tribal women living around the backwaters of Dimbhe Dam at 45 villages of ­Ambegaon taluk, 75km north of Pune. The global grant project was done in partnership with RC Fort Collins-Breakfast, RID 5440, and RC Culver City, RID 5280, US, at a cost of $52,835.

All the beneficiaries were trained to use and maintain the eco-friendly stoves “which are fuel efficient, portable and smokeless as compared to traditional earthen chullahs.” ­Expressing her gratitude to Rotary, Sapna Baban Kale (29) from Maybawadi village, says, “the smokeless stove is a life-saver for my family of five, and cooking is now made relatively effortless, thanks to Rotary.” Asane village sarpanch (panchayat chief) Khema ­Gabhale points out, “these stoves have come 40 years too late as an entire generation of women had to suffer a life of poor health and smoke-filled huts and cottages.”

Every six month the NGO members will visit the beneficiary homes to review the maintenance and usage of the stoves for the next two years, says Sadhana. “Once we get good results, we will once again tie-up with our foreign partners to expand the distribution of smokeless stoves.” Primary contact Savant is in touch with his counterpart Krishna Murthy from RC Fort Collins-Breakfast to take the smokeless stove project forward. The US club has done 10 global grant projects with RC Pune Sports City since 2018. Earthfit Solutions in Aurangabad have installed the stoves.