Changing the face of Ahmednagar villages
Project Aashayein (hope) of RAC HR College, RID 3141, has adopted three villages in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra in partnership with other stakeholders like WOTR, an NGO working to alleviate rural poverty through capacity building of villagers.
“Over the last 10 years, we had installed many solar lights, panels; set up 18 wells and borewells (each costing a little over ₹1lakh); gave seed money of over ₹1.5 lakh to 10 budding entrepreneurs; and handed over 1,500 sanitary pads at the menstrual hygiene sessions in the villages in and around Ahmednagar,” said club president Shikha Shah.
While the project work is almost completed at three adopted villages, “we are in the process of installing facilities and educating people in 10 more villages. An event Gazaab Maharashtra is held each year to hand out seed money to youngsters who are striving to become entrepreneurs,” she explained.
Inter-school competitions in performing and fine arts, literary arts, and an informal sport meet are held at Project We are the World and “every year, around 2,000 students display their multifaceted skills at this three-day arts festival which is a 22-year-old legacy event of our club.”
Last year (2023–24), the club had done 380 service projects, events, drives, campaigns and other community activities in all. The value of community projects alone would be ₹4 lakh for last year, said Shikha.
With 450 members, the institution-based, 39-year-old club has the advantage of inducting new college-goers who had just come from their junior college (Class 11–12) on the same campus at urchgate, South Mumbai.
Doing her second year management degree (BMS course), Shikha turned nostalgic over her four-year Rotaract journey: Rotaract has changed me completely, with a 360 degree transformation in my personality. “Right now, I am quite happy to be a Rotaractor, and have not given any thought about being a Rotarian,” she added.
