Rose milk wins hearts for Delhi Rotaract
A four-year-old Project Chabeel Seva that offers chilled rose milk to the public as instant refreshment from the scorching heat of May-June in the national capital has boosted the public image of RAC Delhi Dynamic Leaders, RID 3011.
Club ambassador Navdeep Singh Oberoi says, “we adopted this summer relief project from RAC Young Visionaries and expanded its reach. Last June we distributed around 3,000 litres of rose milk to 10,000 people… they range from daily wagers and street vendors to students and professionals. In fact, anyone exposed to the hot sun at the Janakpuri neighbourhood was given the refresh drink.”
Oberoi along with past presidents and members of Rotaract clubs from RID 3011 and other districts got together and formed the Rotaract Club of Delhi Dynamic Leaders three years ago. “We are a group of 52 Rotaractors drawn from diverse sectors with a good mix of college students. All of them are involved in our service projects in one way or the other either through donations in cash, kind or effort,” explains Oberoi.
For Project Unnati (progress), being done since the club’s inception, the club has tied up with seven city schools and 12 residential colonies, “from where we collect old notebooks, sparsely-used stationery items, newspapers, magazines and discarded household items through a scheduled exercise. The collected discards are recycled through a local vendor who creates new notebooks, pens and other eco-friendly utility pieces.”
After taking delivery of the new products, “that are handed over to us twice over every three months,” the Rotaract teams with the help of 2–3 NGOs distribute them to children at the underserved communities. “Over the last three years, not less than 4,500 children would have received our largess which will help them in their education,” says Oberoi. They don’t set targets for Project Unnati as it is being carried out throughout year, “and we are still expanding our collection base by adding more schools and neighbourhoods for a bigger recycling process, that will fetch us more school essentials for poor children.”
Old bedsheets, pillows, clothes and home textiles are collected from houses across Delhi and given to a skill development centre being run by a rehabilitation home near the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, Connaught Place, Delhi, under Project Eco-Sevika. “We have donated five sewing machines to the skilling centre where around 10 women take our raw materials to stitch eco-friendly bags for which we pay ₹120–150 per piece,” explains Oberoi. Till now, they have delivered over 500 bags which were later marketed by the Rotaractors.
Through tie-ups with multiple companies across India, “we have done 40 blood donation camps for their staff and factory workers at their site. In the coming months, more such blood donation drive will be held,” says club president Rahul Bansal. One of the focus areas is skilling youth and women in tie-up with NGOs and stakeholders, and “in the current year, we have a target to reach out to at least 500 beneficiaries who will be given adequate training in multiple vocations for them to get a regular income,” he says.
Employed as an IT consultant at a software major in Delhi, Oberoi says, “this is my 11th year in Rotaract which has become a family to me now. I learnt managerial and communication skills as a Rotaractor which shaped up my personality.” He was a member of the Rotary Club of Delhi Elite for a while before it was shut down. But he confides that “I find Rotaract more interesting than Rotary, and enjoy being a Rotaractor than a Rotarian.”
He wants to continue as a Rotaractor as “long as possible and I’ve never given a thought to becoming a Rotarian,” he smiles.
