Giving back to Society
When I joined Rotary Club of Chennai Thiruvanmiyur, I didnt understand what changes a club can make to somebody unknown. Our club had taken up Adult Literacy program in a very remote village near Pondi, which is quite far away from our city. While the project objectives were good, the distance and the way the then President had taken this project unilaterally, made all of us not to think too much of it. But a Project is a Project done with a Goodness. This is a such a remote village, where the main occupation of the people is fishing in the nearby Pondi reservoir. That is also halted when the Krishna waters comes into the reservoir.
When the program was started it was with reluctance that the people joined. The President came up with the idea to give one kg of rice to the people who are attending the program, whenever he visited them. That became the great motivator as for people who dont know when their next meal will be or where it will come from - it became a boon that some organization is giving them one kg of rice apart from teaching them to learn the alphabets. It was a double joy for them. They now know how to sign their names too. Now the club wanted to provide them with sustained income by promoting some activity. Lot of discussions took place. Finally our President, Mr Karunanidhi, came up with the brilliant idea of providing them saplings of Lemon, Pomegranate, Drumstick and other trees, whose produce can be easily sold and make them get some income or other.
So the whole club with the Annettes leading the way, went out on a Sunday and did the handing over of the saplings and helped them to plant too. Within one to two years, each of these household, have some income getting generated in their backyard.
What a fantastic transformation indeed.
I am glad to be part of this movement, which encourages people to do Service to humanity, which is Service to God. This is just one of the programs, there are innumerable other things that happen because of the goodness of the Human Spirit, whether it is Rotary Club or Lions Club or any other club which mandates that service projects become the talking point of the club activities.
May all those who take part in the upliftment of the poor people or render service to his or her brethren, be Blessed with all Happiness.
Long live the spirit of Human kindness
Comments
Thanks for your comment for various postings. In this posting, I want to make one change to your comment .... Instead of " He was a stateman who thought about the future generations" it should read as " He was the ONLY stateman who thought about the future generations". That would be apt because most of the people are worried about what is the effect for any scheme for the next elections only.
Also read about another news item in Samachar.com (Hindustan Times?) which states that our Laloo asks for Rs. 1 lac pension for MPs - you know what is the reason - that men MPs would lose their incomes when the Women's Reservation Bill gets passed. The comments by the readers were hilarious. I'm shocked beyond belief how low our politicians can stoop down. I wrote a comment saying it's better to lock up the parliament, of course with all politicians inside, and make it Tihar II!