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AÓ[PõÁ»º
Aruna Koushik
As a recently widowed person, I had been coming to grips with the change in my marital status and the subtle social changes I was experiencing, those of isolation and a noticeable nervousness from some of my friends who were unsure how to react or respond to me. In July 2024, I decided to visit India with my friend Barb Bjarneson. Members of my club’s board of directors wisely charged me with exploring a project for widows, as one of them had heard about the plight of widows in India.
We visited the tiger sanctuary in Mudumalai for our first time and had the privilege of meeting Zubair Ahmed, the assistant governor of District 3203
(Tamil Nadu, India) and members of the Rotary clubs in Gudalur. Ahmed and the Rotarians told us about the Adivasi, who are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent indigenous to Asia. Many of them live in the forest areas. They tend to animals under the direction of the government forestry department and work as laborers in the spice and tea estates. We were invited to visit a settlement and witness firsthand the work they provide in the forest areas.
Our discussions circled around the social structures in place for widows and women who have been abandoned (which happens frequently). Historically in India, widows and
abandoned women lose social standing and are often shunned by society or blamed for their misfortunes. Opportunities to support themselves or obtain training are minimal.
Ahmed had connections with Sevalaya Trust, an organis ation that has been working with the Adivasi and decided to seek their input. Sevalaya has built a great deal of trust with the Adivasi in the Gudalur, Ooty, and surrounding areas providing them services like health care, employment, literacy, and vocational skills.
When I got back to Windsor, I heard from Sevalaya Trust in August that while they provide sustainable training for the women, there is considerable
need for access to equipment such as their own sewing machines to be able to work independently and earn a living.
My Rotary Club of WindsorRoseland approached other clubs in our district, who were willing to organize a project and fund sewing machines for Adivasi women. District 3203 and the Rotary Club of Gudalur Valley would coordinate the project with Sevalaya Trust and District 3234 (Chennai, India) and the Rotary clubs of ChennaiMambalam and Kilpauk would channel the funds and arrange volunteers.
Sevalaya Trust was instrumental in the application process and handled interviewing and selecting the neediest candidates from among the women. After a call for applications, 80 women were selected and taught basic sewing skills like stitching Indian saree blouse, kurta and salwar. Upon completing the training, they received certificates and signed agreements that they would use their skills in a proper way to support themselves. Sevalaya maintains a list of all the women, who indicated they had plans to continue their training.
We selected the Sri Kumaran Trading Centre to supply sewing machines based on the following criteria:
the price and cost of transportation
the amount of ongoing support and service promised to keep the machines working and in repair
how easy it was for women to access this service/repair.
In addition, after the owner of the business heard some of the life stories of these women, he offered to provide ongoing repairs and services on the machines for free.
Stories
Local Rotarians distributed the 80 sewing machines on 11 January, and I had the joy and privilege of being
among them. Here are some of the stories I heard.
One woman talked about living through the Covid pandemic. She had been in a difficult marriage for seven years in which she suffered abuse. The community blamed her, saying she was bad luck. Then her husband died, and she was ostracized. She had to resort to begging for food and working as a day laborer. When she heard the call for training she decided to apply and started to cry when she was selected.
Another young woman was the mother of two beautiful girls and struggling to make ends meet. Eight years ago, her husband said he was going out to get groceries one day and never returned. She is fighting to be a role model for her girls and jumped at the chance of making a decent living. She had us all in tears as she thanked everyone for the chance to get a new start in life.
The Ripple effect
RID 6400 PDG Aruna Koushik gets a hug from one of the recipients.
After the giveaway, District 3203
Governor Dr. Suresh Babu determined there was a great need to establish a vocational training center. The Rotary clubs of Kotagiri and Kundha agreed to help organize it to train women in basic stitching skills. The Rotary Club of Gudalur jumped in and distributed 10 more sewing machines in those towns on 12 January. The women who received the machines couldn’t stop talking about this life-changing experience. One woman excitedly noted how her teachers helped her decide the price for her sewing products, as she had no idea how much to charge.
As members of Rotary, we truly do create magic in the lives of others!
Author is a past governor of Rotary District 6400 (Ontario, Canada, and Michigan, USA)
“Clubs and districts have access to tremendous expertise across the globe through Rotary Action Groups, the Cadre of Technical Advisers, and district resource networks. These collaborations can support a club through the entire project cycle.”
Hauwa Abbas, of the Rotary Club of Abuja Metro, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, is serving as a member of the RI Programs Committee through 2027, is a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, and serves on the board of the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives. She has also served District 9125 as assistant governor and international service chair. She’s a public health consultant who founded the Silver Lining for the Needy Initiative, which is dedicated to improving living standards in Nigeria.
Q: Why should clubs care about their impact?
HAUWA: Impact is important for clubs to consider because the program you’re trying to develop or do has the potential to create positive long-term change and provide measurable improvements in the community that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The best way to approach impact is to involve the community by engaging with the gatekeepers through interviews, surveys, or focus group discussions. This will help identify gaps and guide planning. Community assessment is vital for all intended interventions. We may go into a community thinking X is what they need but discover that they have far more pressing needs.
Q: What do clubs need to do to focus on impact?
HAUWA: The first thing is to build a good team. Having a good team with different skill sets, like technology, programming, financing, and writing, gives whatever you’re about to begin a head start. The second thing is to ensure that we facilitate learning. In my experience, a mindset of adaptation and flexibility is important in anything you do, especially when working with a group of volunteers. Things will not always go your way. Being able to respond with a positive attitude to setbacks and challenges and being willing to explore creative ways to achieve set goals are part of the learning process and also translate to personal growth.
There are also hundreds of courses available on the Rotary Learning Center, something many members are not aware of. I always encourage clubs to ask their members to go on the Learning Center to do the training related to their particular committee. They’ll gain more technical knowledge or skills toward whatever it is they want to plan. And the third thing is to collaborate. I cannot overemphasize the power of collaboration, especially with our Rotary network. Clubs and districts have access to tremendous expertise across the globe through Rotary Action Groups, the Cadre of Technical Advisers, and district resource networks. These collaborations can support a club through the entire project cycle. Clubs also need to be able to identify corporate organizations and other NGOs that have the same shared vision or values that they can partner with. Financial contributions aren’t the only benefit of partner
collaborations. Working with government partners can enrich the impact and sustainability of a project. Collaboration means that whatever you do is going to have a bigger impact and can actually be scaled up.
Q: You’ve taken us through why our clubs should care about impact, but can you tell us how Rotary members should think about impact?
HAUWA: I’ll use the word collaboration again. Clubs should think about impact through collaboration. Sometimes, people feel like they can’t combine their interests into one. You’ll see people who are more passionate about the environment, others who are passionate about health, and others who are passionate about education. But there’s no reason why they can’t all be integrated into one program or multiple activities.
Rotary clubs should also involve Interact clubs or Rotaract clubs. It’s another avenue to involve them in your programs and gives you more hands on deck. So why not collaborate with the Rotaract community or your Rotary Community Corps as well? That actually increases volunteer input as well as the number of volunteers involved.
Developing and implementing an effective project requires planning, acquiring resources, promotion, and the evaluation of results. Rotary can guide you step by step through your next project, no matter the scope, from start to finish. Visit rotary.org/actionplan to learn more about impact.
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20232017(2019), (2021), (2024),
Statement about ownership and other particulars about Rotary News (Tamil) to be published in the first issue of every year after the last day of February
1.Place of Publication:Chennai - 600 008
2.Periodicity of its publication:Monthly
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