Trustee Chair visits service projects in Chennai

The true essence of Rotary is fostering global partnerships to address local challenges,” said TRF Trustee Chair Mark Maloney, as he inaugurated Project E-Shala Version 2 in Chennai. This global grant initiative, led by RC Madras East (RCME), RID 3234, enhances digital education by integrating interactive panels into schools, giving students and teachers better access to technology.

He urged Rotarians to contribute to the PolioPlus Fund, and “consider directed gifts and cash contributions to support global grants.”

TRF Trustee Bharat Pandya highlighted the club’s contribution of $145,000 to TRF and stressed the importance of education, especially for girls. “True ­empowerment doesn’t come from gold chains or diamonds, but only through a good education. With this project, you are going to change the lives of thousands of girls,” he said.

The E-Shala project, initially launched in 2019–20, has given smartboards worth ₹1 crore to eight schools of the Vivekananda Educational Society in Chennai. Supported by Rotary Clubs of Madras Central, Madras Coromandel, and international ­partners — RCs Greater ­Sydney, Hills-­Kellyville, Medicine Hat and ­Cataraqui Kingston, the initiative provided 82 interactive panels that allowed the use of digital platforms like PhET for science, Kahoot for quizzes, Geogebra for math, and Scratch for coding.

The success of the pilot project led to E-Shala 2, benefiting schools in the city’s northern suburbs. “The goal is to bring modern digital learning tools to underprivileged schools, allowing students access to a broader range of resources,” said RCME president P Muthu. He thanked club member ­Srinivasa Rao and his spouse Vinayambika Rao for their $35,000 contribution towards the term gift, which made E-Shala 2 possible. “These funds will upgrade 25 classrooms at the Sri Ram Dayal Khemka ­Vivekananda ­Vidyalaya with ­interactive smart ­panels.” The international partner for this project is RC Irvine, RID 5320, USA. He also highlighted that the club has done GG projects worth $2.5 million.

RCME has 26 major donors and is a recipient of the 100 per cent Paul Harris Fellow Club Award for three consecutive years. The club’s key ­initiatives include a ₹1 crore BETI (­Better ­Education and Training ­Initiatives) GG project, benefitting over 5,000 students, and installing a ­hydraulic lab worth ₹45 lakh at ­Ramakrishna Mission Polytechnic College to train 5,000 students in practical skills. ­Catararact surgeries valued at ₹4.5 crore has ­benefitted 22,500 individuals.

The Winners Bakery initiative generates sustainable profits to fund vocational projects and youth employment opportunities. The Wings to Fly project, now in its 10th edition, has so far given 25,000 government school students the opportunity to visit foreign countries.The club’s Aravind Rotary Center for Advanced Ophthalmic Resources and Education (₹1.5 crore) provides advance eyecare and training. RCME’s ₹4.5 crore Healing Tiny Hearts project, in partnership with the Apollo ­Hospitals and Tamil Nadu ­government, has funded life-saving heart surgeries for over 1,500 children.

Nadi Dialysis Centre

Maloney and his spouse Gay visited the Nadi-RCM-Tolia Dialysis Centre at Madhavaram, a northern suburb. The facility with 12 machines was set up in June 2022, said PDG J B ­Kamdar, who is the CMD of Nadi Airtechnics, the makers of industrial fans, where the centre is located.

Looking at the statistic chart, the Maloneys were happy to know that 14,474 dialysis sessions were done as on date, benefitting 140 patients including 70 current beneficiaries.

Recalling the two-year journey of the dialysis centre, Kamdar said out of the total project cost of ₹2.5 crore, “a global grant of ₹1 crore was used to buy the machines by RC Madras, RID 3234, while the building and other ­features were put up by the ­Pushpavathi Babulal Kamdar ­Charitable Trust, at a cost of ₹1.5 crore.” The club ­partnered with RC Alamo, RID 5160, US, and the Wockhardt Foundation which operates the dialysis centre.

As part of a comprehensive ­medical complex, “we will build a new 30,000sqft centre that will house the expanded dialysis unit with 20 machines — five more from RC ­Chennai Madhavaram and three machines funded by our ­family Trust,” said ­Kamdar.

While the club will do it through a GG worth ₹40 lakh, the new building funded by the Kamdar Trust, costing ₹12 crore, will also include a mammogram clinic, screening facility for cervical cancer, and a primary health centre, named Nadi-SMF-­Medical ­Centre. The Nadi health centre is providing general health and diagnostic services at an affordable cost to the local community over the last 14 years, said Jayanthi Nagarajan, past president, RC Chennai ­Madhavaram. Kamdar added that the new medical building is expected to be inaugurated by December 2025.