Rotaractors vibe with Ausa community
A small town Ausa in Latur district of Maharashtra is lucky to have a zestful Rotaract club — RAC Ausa Midtown in District 3132 — led by President Nishant Rachatte who not only inspires his members but takes active role in devising projects and implementing them. It is a two-year-old club, and all the 15 Rotaractors are active and brimming with ideas for a variety of service activities, he says.
In August, the Rotaractors visited Ramachandra Balak Ashram, an orphanage at Budhoda village 4 km from the town, to celebrate Raksha Bandhan with 50 inmates. “We were so touched when the little girls tied rakhis on our wrists, and we in turn presented sweets and gifts to the children. It was so much fun to interact with them,” recalls Rachatte. He along with the Club Secretary Krishna Fattepurkar performed a stand-up comedy which the children enjoyed.
On Independence Day, they invited 10 retired Army men, including two former officers, to give inspirational talks for an audience of 50 youngsters. “They talked about their experiences safeguarding the borders, the training and life in the Army in general, to which the audience listened spellbound.”
The club donated uniforms to 15 needy students of Sriram Madhyamik Vidyalaya at Sarola village, 10 km from the taluk. During the Ganesh Visarjan in Ausa, the Rotaractors gave snacks and refreshments to policemen on duty and the aged devotees accompanying the rally.
Rachatte maintains a ‘club diary’ to keep an updated record of projects he will be taking up in the coming months. “So far, I have noted down 20 social programmes and events.” His list includes self-defence training sessions for girls, distributing to the public and school students, a ready reckoner with contact details of the police and other emergency authorities, and installing direction boards at vantage points such as near holy places for guiding visitors to go around the town.
Heaping praise on the Ausa Rotaractors, DRR Kshitij Choudhari says this community-based club is doing at least two notable projects every month “which is really commendable given that it is located in a small town with rural landscape and is one of the 27 active clubs which has updated their membership details with the RI registry.”
