Rotaract instils HOPE in less privileged
During the peak Covid times, the then DRR Varda Sardana, RID 3012, mooted a novel Project HOPE — Helping Other People Everyday — for the district Rotaract clubs in which Rotaractors take up events and service activities related to all the seven focus areas of RI in the first week of July, at the start of the new Rotary year. “In the first two years, this holistic project was done for 20 days at a stretch, but later on in the last three years we restricted our work to just eight days,” says district secretary Shashi Prakash.
While diverse projects and community work are done in the first seven days, “on the last day, all the four zones take up events related to the six district projects — Rangde (paining wall); Aaina (MHM and sex education); Annupusthi (food distribution, healthy lifestyle camps), Pride Place (LGBTQ rights), Power of Pony Tails (breast, cervical cancer awareness), and Saahas (educating poor children). Our zonal Rotaract representatives coordinate the multiple events in their respective areas,” he explains. Recalling the early days of Project HOPE, Prakash says, “it was started to effectively reach out to less privileged people who were suffering a lot during the Covid times. And now, we are happy that through this signature initiative we have touched over 200,000 lives across age groups over the last five years through RI’s focus areas.” The beneficiaries were mostly people from lower strata of society who could not even afford basic amenities related to nutrition, healthcare, sanitation and education.
At present, 600-plus Rotaractors from 36 Rotaract clubs are involved in Project HOPE which has done some “impactful service in the national capital region of Delhi.” Giving her two cents on the project, DRR Kaavya Jain says, “we have survived the Covid, yet the essence of Project Hope stayed with us as our smallest action of helping others create a magical impact on the society.”
In the eight days of intense action at the start of new Rotary year, “we leave no stone unturned by touching all aspects of service through our action,” she says. With her district theme, United efforts, diverse impacts, Kaavya says, “Rotaractors need to work together and make the world a happier place through the magic of Rotary.”
While riding on a wave crest in his four-year Rotaract journey, Prakash (24), a dual member and working as a digital marketing manager, is “quite happy managing both my Rotaract and Rotary responsibilities.” For him, doing even a small meaningful service “can bring a smile on the faces of less privileged people, and this motivates me to continue with my present stint in both my Rotaract (RAC Delhi Pegasus) and Rotary (RC Delhi East End) worlds,” he smiles.
