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Activity report of 2005-06
1. Gift a smile
 Mother Teresa said: "What matters is not how much you give, but how much love you put into giving."
When Dina Denning from RC of Norwin, USA sent an ethnic doll for "Rotary Dolls museum" Rajkot… "Let me send some toys for the poor children" she told Rtn Deepak Agrawal, project in charge. She asked her Rotary Club of Norwin and her friends. Soon a few became more than 800 lovely stuffed toys.
60 Rotarians, spouses and children of RC Rajkot midtown personally gifted those toys to underprivileged children. The stuffed toys instantly brought broad smiles on young faces and the project was named "Gift a Smile".
As she wrote: "Even though you are thousands of miles away, our hearts go out to you. We hope that we have put smiles on your face, laughter in your hearts and a warm feeling all the way down to your toes. We hope that we have made your day a little brighter and that you will always know that a group of us back in America are thinking of you and wishing you well. We wish that we could be there to see the sparkle in your eyes."
Children of RCC Tramba (a village where Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi- wife of "father of the nation" M. K. Gandhi was kept under house arrest), children in paediatric ward of general hospital, children of Mother Teresa orphanage, children in slum areas, children in Rotary Midtown Township built for earthquake affected (one of our 3-H projects), received this unique gift of smile, love and warmth.
For all those children, this was the most precious gift they ever received and their tears of joy and wonder made Rotarians feel immense sense of satisfaction.
It appears that across continents, smiles will continue to be exchanged.
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2. Safe Drinking Water Project
 It is estimated that water borne diseases affects 80% of our children and these illnesses have a major effect on their well being, growth and education. Children loose as much as one month every year per child due to these illnesses. The problem is acute and severe in the children residing slums. They have no access to safe drinking water.
Rotary club of Rajkot Midtown, R.I. District 3060, India approached Rotary club of Leonardtown, R.I. District 7620 from USA and applied for a matching grant, to provide safe drinking water to these children.
We selected 21 schools chiefly located in slum areas and provided them with…
1. 500 litres capacity water tank
2. Aqua guard water purifier
3. Water cooler
4. Motor pump
5. Necessary masonry work and plumbing
6. Metal fabricated safety stand for water cooler
7. Water bottles
Project was recently completed and inaugurated in all 21 schools. These would benefit more than 9000 students.
To create awareness about hazards of unsafe drinking water, we organised a painting competition in which 4000 students participated. An equal number of students took part in the slogan writing competition as well.
2800 water bottles distributed to the winners of these competitions.
These would provide clean drinking water and keep the water cool.
We were gratified to receive sincere and heartfelt accolades from students, teachers, guardians and education authorities.
We achieve a great sense of satisfaction in providing safe and cold drinking water to thousands of school children.
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3. Shoes to Slum Children
 The members of DLF when went to give toys in slum areas they realise that most of children are without any shoes or slippers. In India where day temperature touches 45 degree centigrade, one can image the hardship these poor children are suffering. So with the help of RS. 4000 we have donated 200 pairs of canvas shoes to slum children on 15th August 2005.
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4. Mosquito nets for prevention of malaria to poor children & their family
 Slum children are affected very easily with disease of malaria. The biggest reason is collection of water in small pits, which causes mosquitoes.
To prevent these children DLF went to the one of the slum area of Rajkot and distributed Mosquito nets to all poor children and their family. One mosquito net was given between two members of the family. Total 40 families got benefit.
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5. Sweater to poor children
 Objective: The main objective of this project was to provide sweaters, which reflects our warmth, love, and understanding for less privileged brethren.
Time: 12:30 PM
Date: 2nd Jan 2006
Venue: Shantinagar Slum Area
Near Savani Kidney Hospital, University road, Rajkot, India
Partners: Doll lovers Fellowship members & Rotaract club of Christ College, Rajkot.
To give a shape to this objective, our Rotaractors thought of providing.
Sweaters to children from slum areas who cannot afford them. From the last half of December, Rotaractors of Christ College started looking out for an appropriate place where children do not have woolen clothes to protect themselves from severe cold. Members of DLF came to know about this issue.
They received help from Doll Lovers Fellowship. They located a slum area near Kidney Hospital on University Road, Rajkot. On 31st December, we selected 50 children from this slum area and took measurements for the sweater sizes.
On 2nd January DLF, Rotaractors, staff members of Christ College along with Father Joseph (Principal of Christ College) and Rotarians of RC Rajkot Midtown went to this slum area and distributed sweaters to the little angels.
Today we, Rotaractors and Midtowners, feel happy and satisfied that our small step could bring warmth in many hearts.
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6. Membership Development
11 Rotary Clubs members joined during 2005-06.
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Rag Pickers in Rajkot
The population in the city of Rajkot is estimated
to be 1.8 million.
The children from the city slums or communities in the
interior rural pockets around the city of Rajkot have
been identified to be the under-privileged. The population
of these under-privileged children is estimated to be
over 30,000.
These underprivileged children, known
as the Rag pickers, go out early each day and forage
for waste bottles, metal, plastics and rags. Their collections
are then taken by their mothers to the scrap merchants
and exchanged for money. Bottles are worth about 2 Rupees
per kilogram (2.5pence UK or 4.25 cents US) just to
give you some idea of the rates of pay for this task.
The RCRM has been serving these children through
their various community service projects. The RCRM's
mobile van picks up these children from their residences
to bring them to an adopted school. Here these children
are assisted for a clean bath and get them dressed in
clean clothes. Thereafter they are taken to camps for
education or sometimes for a fun & informative trip
to places like the Museum, Planetarium or for an educative
lesson in the school.
 
Here you can see the smiles on these children while
they are happily rocking on the Rocking Zebra which
their friends from England have sent for them. This
is a part of the RCRM's "Bring a Smile" movement
towards the Community Service for the Rag Pickers.
This is an on-going weekly activity that the RCRM with
the RDM staff works on.
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