Rotary Club of Madras Temple City was chartered on 6th July 1989. It was the first club with a woman president outside North America and Canada and one of the first in the world to open up membership for Women.
RC Temple City has grown to be a frontrunner in the Rotary District 3232 with a 50:50 ratio of men to women members and an enviable track record of viable & continuing service projects in in Education, Community Development and Healthcare.
Late PDG Rtn Rekha Shetty who was the charter president of our club went on to become the first lady governor of a district in the whole of southeast Asia.
Our club meetings are held at presidency club on the 2nd and 4thThursday of every month and we have so many noted speakers come as special guests this year including Mr. Sri Ram Panchu, advocate and pioneer of legal mediation , Dr. Santhosh Babu, IAS officer, Mrs. Srimathi Kesan who was instrumental in setting up space kidz India, etc.
Following are the various avenues where we have done tremendous work.
EDUCATION
- Adoption of Schools– Modernisation and ongoing support for Panchayat Schools and aided private schools for marginalised segments. Adoption of tuition centre for underprivileged students in Mylai Balaji Nagar in Pallikarnai
- Operation Day Break Scholarships for Corporation and Panchayat school children to stay in the schooling system and qualify for higher education
- Temple City has facilitated the largest prison library of 60000 books at Puzhal Jail , Chennai.
- This year, we have undertaken renovation work and infrastructure enforcement work in various 5 different schools in the city and in Chinnamedu village.
HEALTHCARE
- Preventive Healthcare programs for students & community covering General Health , Diabetes, Eye care, Dental and Hearing defects, & specialised women clinics for Cancer awareness and early
- Conducted many blood donation camps in colleges, corporate offices and factories.
- Distribution of hearing aids to hearing impaired children. So far, we have distributed more 500 hearing aids in various special schools.
- We have Commenced a project called ‘Healing Little Hearts’ this year . This project aims at treatment of children with congenital hearts disease. So far 30 children have benefitted from this project and the interventions has transformed their lives for ever.
WATER AND SANITATION
We have adopted this village called Chinnamedu in Thiruvallur district and set up the happy village project there.
In this village, we along with the RCC ,(Rotary Community Corps) do turnkey development work - from providing clean potable water to health and hygiene through multiple interventions. Water has been a clear focus - de-silting ground water level rose from a depth of 120 feet, to about 80 feet nearer to the surface. The total area irrigated from cleaned Ponds and feed Channels is about 450 Acres leading to more crops and increase per acre of Rs.25000.
We have also created soak pits which is a environmentally friendly and hygienic way for toilet disposal in the village homes.
Recently, we have agreed to work alongside St Jude , a NGO which has the reputation of running shelter homes for paediatric patients to stay with their families during treatment.
St. Jude, India takes care of children between the age group 0 - 15 years, coming with their families from remote corners of the country, to cure themselves of Cancer.
They provide free clean and hygienic accommodation, kitchen and ablution facilities, nutrition support and transport.
We also undertake vocational training for women from downtrodden society and villages to help them become self-reliant.
Another flagship project of this club includes the Annual Inter School Patriotic Song Competition – A very successful and coveted interschool competition with more than 30 schools participating. This annual competition is held on January 26th every year.
Our club is always eager to help and we respond to natural disasters too, by providing essentials For the Kerala and Orissa floods , Covid Relief, Earthquake relief etc.
Our club dreams big and want to do more for this society however the running costs for these projects are huge. To sustain these successful projects and to adopt more meaningful projects , we need immense support from donors and we have had so many donors both individuals and corporate companies joining hands with us to make a difference in the lives of many. We are very grateful to their support and belief in us.