Medical care for villagers

Reaching out to rural families with a medical camp under Project Nalam, “gave us immense satisfaction as the villagers don’t have access to modern healthcare and are not aware of lifestyle diseases,” says M Dhanush, president, RAC Guindy, RID 3232. The four-year-old ­community-based club tied up with Imax Healthcare, a hospital owned by Rtn Prashanth Rajendran from RC Guindy, their parent Rotary, for the health check-up camp at ­Gudalur, Chengalpattu district, 50km from Chennai.

Two doctors supported by three nurses examined around 120 patients for BMI (body mass index), blood sugar, BP (hypertension) and other health issues. While Dr Rakesh Vemparala is a Rotaractor, Dr Sneha is a consultant from Imax. “After consultations, medicines including antibiotics for one month were given to patients,” says Dhanush. Among the beneficiaries, five persons were found to have diabetes “and they were unaware of this till they attended the camp.”

A half-day workshop on cybersecurity was held in December with club secretary Arunagiri, an IT engineer, giving a talk to 45 Rotaractors from across RID 3232. “We covered diverse topics such as phishing, data privacy, social media hacking and wormhole. Following the interactive session, certificates were given to all participants,” he says.

Diwali was celebrated at CMS Children’s Home, an orphanage, with over 100 inmates under Project Sparkles. The club donated ceiling fans, mattresses, and sparsely-used clothes that were collected through a special drive. “We distributed 10 bags of crackers, biscuits and sweets to the children. Also, hygiene kits were donated to them.” An IT cloud engineer, Dhanush has been a Rotaractor for 10 years and “enjoys doing community service leading the 24-member Rotaract club. I have no plans to become a dual member. But at a later stage I will become a Rotarian to expand my community reach.”