more-in The country’s largest and oldest Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Bombay, added another year to its existence, turning 90 on Monday. Among its many activities, this year, it is looking to focus on child care, specifically street children, besides creating awareness on mental illness and combating the stigma around them. The Rotary Club is an association comprising businessmen and professionals from all walks of life who come together for the betterment of society. There are around 95 Rotary Clubs in India and 25,500 all across the world. A Rotarian, says Ramesh Narayan, President of the Rotary Club of Bombay, is a professional who has achieved a certain stature in society and is ready to give back. The Club has 315 members, and selection is not easy, he says. “We make sure the individual is as serious to help society as we are.” In Mumbai, the Club has projects in the areas of medical care, sanitation, animal welfare and environment conservation, senior citizen care and education. Last June, the Club started Ananda Yaan, a mission to provide happiness to senior citizens. As part of this, it will collaborate with the Shankar Mahadevan Music Academy to provide music-centric activities to senior citizens next week. It also runs two adult day-care centres in Byculla and Prabhadevi. The centres aim to provide senior citizens with a space away from the chaos and cramped conditions in the city, and a platform to interact with like-minded people. Says Rotarian and Chairman of Ananda Yaan, Alok Sekhsaria, “Senior citizens are often subject to neglect and we aim to improve their mental and physical health by arranging yoga and meditation programmes within the centre.” This initiative, involving an eight-member committee, also conducts singing and dancing sessions for the 150 members of both the centres. The centres celebrate birthdays and festivals, and conduct free health camps. The Club is also in the process of installing a solar electrification system for the Marina Bay View Garden at Cuffe Parade. It has contributed a similar system to parts of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vaastu Sangrahalaya and is in talks to help with the museum’s eco-friendly efforts. Apart from these, it runs Bhavishya Yaan, a student enrichment programme in five Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation-run schools, impacting about 1,200 students every year. The programme, in its eighth year, helps students with spoken English, computer skills and life skills. Besides this, they are taken on off-site visits. Says Mr. Narayan, “A separate effort is on to provide them nourishment in the form of peanuts and bananas to tackle the severe problem of malnutrition among underprivileged children.” As the Club enters its 90th year, he says, it “looks back with satisfaction and looks ahead with confidence.” Its mission is, as always, to “positively impact the life of the underprivileged and consolidate ongoing projects.”

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