An Indian DRR takes the message of collaboration to Japan during Christmas

RI District 3231 DRR Udhayakumar Srinivasan, who is always on the lookout for strengthening Rotaract’s international service activities, spent this Christmas season and the new year interacting with Rotaractors and Rotarians from various RI districts in Japan.

During a short business visit to Japan, where he has been working on a project being done by his IT company with a client in Japan for a few years now, he has been spending his weekends with the activities being done by Rotary and Rotaract clubs close to him.

“In November, when my company asked me to go once again to Japan to work with one of our customers, I put forth the condition that I will do so, but I should be allowed in the weekends to spend my time in Rotary/Rotaract activities.” After getting the green signal from his boss in India, he contacted the Rotary Japan headquarters at rijapan@rotary.org, saying he would be in Tokyo for some time and was interested in participating in Rotary and Rotaract activities.

He got a detailed reply “which helped me to get the contact details of Rotarians and Rotaractors from nearest RI districts.” He also sent out posts on Facebook to the DRRs in Japan saying that he would like to participate in such activities and identified some individual Rotaractors on social media and tried to connect with them.

With this line of communication established, the DRR, who is stationed in Tokyo at present for his company project, has had a rich and fun experience with the Rotary family in Japan. On Dec 23, he participated in the Christmas celebrations of Rotaract District 2840, and along with its members, distributed gifts to the children in a park and participated in a PR drive which propagated the message ‘End Polio’. The very next day a PDRR from RID 2840 invited him to visit several iconic places in the district.

He was also invited by the Rotaract Club of Omiya, District 2770 (Saitama City, Japan) for cleaning places around the Omiya Railway station. “I reached the Omiya station around 9 am and we spent two hours to clean the area. It was good to see Rotarians join the Rotaractors in this cleaning activity.”

A day after Christmas, he met Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Tokyo Yoneyama Yuai (RID 2750) and discussed various ideas that would help the development of Rotaractors from both his home district in Tamil Nadu, RID 3231, and the Japanese district.

On the takeaways from his interaction and activities in Japan, Udhayakumar says “I was really surprised by seeing their involvement in focusing on each and every small thing… to the level of perfection. They made a small donation box for the End Polio fund, had prepared pamphlets to create awareness on the Polio project and invited people to join Rotary/Rotaract.”

What impressed him the most was the support given by the public park representatives as “they took interest in our activity and gave dinner coupons to the Rotaractors to encourage them!”

Asked what difference did he find with the Rotarians and Rotaractors in Japan, the DRR said: “Their planning and perfection; the respect they give to everyone, and the encouragement they receive from both within the Rotary family and outside.”