Celebrating joy with less privileged
It was all about celebrating happiness for Ahmedabad Rotaractors, RID 3055, as 13 Rotaract clubs came together for doing Project Sprinkles of Joy, a one-day event spread over a month. The teams — three club teams in an area — can select any date from Dec 15-Jan 14 for taking up a slew of welfare initiatives for the less privileged families and children.
Visiting an old age home, Jeevan Sandhya, and having fun time with the elders; distributing food packets and sparingly used clothes to 80 families at Maninagar, Bastrapur and Kankaria, deprived areas; spending time with 50 children at the anganwadi, Bodakdev, and holding fun games for them, after which delicious food was served to all, are some of the social activities done by the city clubs. “Around 64 Rotaractors formed teams for doing projects that brought ‘sprinkles of joy’ on the faces of beneficiaries, mostly marginalised people and children,” says Saloni Dalal, zonal Rotaract representative.
On the eve of Makar Sankranti (Jan 14), colourful and aesthetically designed kites were given to 70 children (below 20 years) at Bopal, a jhuggi jhopdi (shanty area) in the city. After this, the Rotaractors visited Prahlad Nagar, an area lacking in basic amenities, and gave winter fruits such as orange, peach and watermelon to children. RACs Ahmedabad Asmita, Midtown and Prahlad Nagar, along with 10 other clubs, took up welfare initiatives from Dec-Jan under this project with coordination from Saloni and Raj Mrug, zonal Rotaract secretary.
In July-August last year, umbrellas and raincoats were distributed to 150 families eking out a tough life across six jhuggi jhopdis in the city under Project Rain Shield. In a heartwarming gesture, members of RAC Ahmedabad Narol bought over 2,000 rakhis (wrist bands among siblings on Raksha Bandhan) from visually-impaired girls at the Andh Kanya Prakash Gruh, a blind school, and sold them to their families, friends and other Rotaractors under Project Rakshika (Aug 2024). “The beneficiaries, all of them visually-impaired poor girls, were very happy, and the profits we got from the bulk sales were used to buy stationery items that were distributed to children,” explains Saloni, a past president of the Narol club.
Recalling her seven-year-old Rotaract journey, she says, “the youth wing of Rotary has taught me HR and interpersonal skills, especially the knack of dealing with diverse people, besides helping me learn some management techniques in real life situations.” Saloni is working as a finance manager in a private firm, and “at present I am yet to decide if I need to join Rotary or not, but in the long run will become a Rotarian for sure,” she adds.
