“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is,
What are you doing for others?”
-Martin Luther King, Jr-
We are all human. You cannot accomplish everything by yourself. To get through the toughest situations in our lives, we need one another. Serving others can be challenging. But it shows that you are doing something primarily for the benefit and reputation of another person or a group of people. When we serve, we go beyond ourselves and our own issues in an effort to benefit others. It seems obvious that acts of service, help people who are in need. Most of the time, those who are being helped are better off when we go outside of ourselves for ways to add value for others, walk with them in times of need, and help them locate resources to satisfy their requirements. However, there is a twist in this situation: not only do those who receive acts of service benefit, but the person providing the service and the environment they are functioning in as well. Community service seemed to be an easy way for young people to perceive themselves as moral agents. Let’s look into the Sustainable Community Service Initiatives in the RI year 2021–22 that received the highest praise at the 32nd District Training Assembly and will undoubtedly result in longer-lasting benefits.
අපි හැමෝම මිනිස්සු. ඔබට තනිවම සෑම දෙයක්ම ඉටු කළ නොහැක. අපගේ ජීවිතයේ දුෂ්කරම තත්වයන් හරහා යාමට, අපට එකිනෙකා අවශ්ය වේ. අන් අයට සේවය කිරීම අභියෝගාත්මක විය හැකිය. නමුත් එයින් පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ ඔබ මූලික වශයෙන් වෙනත් පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ හෝ පුද්ගලයින් පිරිසකගේ යහපත සහ කීර්තිය වෙනුවෙන් යමක් කරන බවයි. අපි සේවය කරන විට, අපි අපෙන් සහ අපගේම ප්රශ්නවලින් ඔබ්බට ගොස් අන් අයට ප්රතිලාභ ලබා දීමට උත්සාහ කරමු. බොහෝ විට, අන් අයට වටිනා කමක් එකතු කිරීමට, අවශ්ය අවස්ථා වලදී ඔවුන් සමඟ සහ ඔවුන්ගේ අවශ්යතා සපුරාලීම සඳහා සම්පත් සොයා ගැනීමට උපකාර කිරීමට අප කටයුතු කල යුතුය. කෙසේ වෙතත්, සේවා ලබා ගන්නා අයට පමණක් නොව, සේවාව සපයන පුද්ගලයාට සහ ඔවුන් ක්රියාත්මක වන පරිසරයටද ප්රතිලාභ ලැබේ. ප්රජා සේවය, යෞවනයන්ට තමන් සදාචාරාත්මක නියෝජිතයන් ලෙස වටහා ගැනීමට පහසු මාර්ගයක් වේ. 2021–22 සඳහා ඉහළම ප්රශංසා ලබා ඇති සහ නිසැකවම දීර්ඝ කාලීන ප්රතිලාභ ලබා දෙන තිරසාර ප්රජා සේවා ව්යාපෘති පහත පරිදි වේ.
நாம் அனைவரும் மனிதர்கள். எங்களால் அனைத்தையும் சாதிக்க முடியாது. நம் வாழ்வில் கடினமான சூழ்நிலைகளை கடக்க, நமக்கு ஒருவர் தேவை. மற்றவர்களுக்கு சேவை செய்வது சவாலாக இருக்கலாம், ஆனால் அப்படி உதவுவது நீங்கள் முதன்மையாக வேறொரு நபரின் அல்லது ஒரு குழுவினரின் நன்மைக்காகவும் நற்பெயருக்காகவும் ஏதாவது செய்கிறீர்கள் என்பதை எடுத்துத் காட்டுகிறது. நாம் சேவை செய்யும்போது, மற்றவர்களுக்கு நன்மை செய்யும் முயற்சியில் நம்மையும் நம் சொந்த பிரச்சினைகளையும் தாண்டி செல்கிறோம். பெரும்பாலான நேரங்களில், மற்றவர்களுக்கு மதிப்பு சேர்க்கும் வழிகளில், தேவைப்படும் சமயங்களில் அவர்களுடன் உடன் இருக்கவும், அவர்களின் தேவைகளைப் பூர்த்தி செய்வதற்கான ஆதாரங்களைக் கண்டறிய உதவவும் நாம் நம்மை விட்டு வெளியே செல்லும்போது, உதவி செய்யப்படுபவர்கள் சிறப்பாக இருப்பார்கள். இருப்பினும், இந்த சூழ்நிலையில் ஒரு திருப்பம் உள்ளது: சேவைச் செயல்களைப் பெறுபவர்கள் பயனடைவார்கள், அது மட்டுமல்ல அத்தோடு சேவையை வழங்குபவர் மற்றும் அவர்கள் செயல்படும் சூழலும் கூடவே பயன் பெறுவார்கள். இளைஞர்கள் தங்களை தார்மீக முகவர்களாக உணர சமூக சேவை ஒரு எளிதான வழியாகத் தோன்றியது. நாம் இங்கு 2021–22க்கான மிக உயர்ந்த பாராட்டுகளைப் பெற்ற நிலையான சமூக சேவை முன்முயற்சிகளைப் பார்ப்போம்.
Gold – Wewa Diyawara Aswaddannata – Rotaract Club of Uva Wellassa University – Badulla
One of the most exceptional initiatives carried out by the Rotaract club of Uva Wellassa University- Badulla was “WEW DIYAWARA ASWADDANNATA”, with the aim of enhancing rural agriculture with a focus on Nochiyagama- Katumulgama village and on the farmers who are now engaged in farming. The main objective of the project is to educate farmers in Nochchiyagama-Katumulugama village. Further, it shows how to create organic fertilizer in a regular manner. The idea will additionally enable the villages to produce their own manure on a shoestring budget, encouraging them to use organic fertilizers. Along with these primary goals, the project paid attention to the significance of providing clean, sanitary tanks and eradicating pollution in order to provide irrigation facilities for agricultural operations in the Nochchiyagama-Katumulugama region, reducing the amount of harmful chemicals and materials released while farming, and ensure a sufficient supply of drinking and hygienic water. Rotaractors then worked with locals to clean up the water resources while exploring the viability of using water hyacinth as an organic fertilizer.
The goals of the project were to clean the “Thalgaswewa” tank and produce organic fertilizer from that raw material to improve the villagers’ economic and agricultural conditions. In support of the planned activities, villagers established their own farmers’ society (Govi Jana samithi) and fisheries groups (dheewara samithi). Senior people and Agri officials participated in a discussion as well. Additionally, they received assistance from Rotary members. Then the fourth-year undergraduates at Uva Wellassa University conducted a study on this organic fertilizer and conducted a ratio analysis. To conduct a survey of the project, they developed a questionnaire. As a result, members constructed it by selecting 25 questions from four categories. Therefore, in the first set of questions, they asked about their financial situation, needs, and desires.
After that, they conducted interviews with the Agrarian Service Development Committee to learn more about their perspectives and conducted an interview with the Agrarian Service Development committee’s technical instructors to acquire their technical advice. From all of these interviews, they gathered a ton of information about their social and cultural backgrounds, economic status, and opinions on the project. The primary focus group for this study was the farmers from the village of Ayagama. The club understood their specific needs and how to enhance the project by using the villagers’ traditional farming knowledge because of the carefully crafted conversation they started.
As mentioned above, they established the Agrarian Service Committee. The president of the committee created a map of the project and recorded all the things that had been completed. They can use that information to determine how they employ their resources, how they overcome problems, and everything else pertaining to the project.
Silver- Sangna 2.0 – Rotaract Club of Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo
This remarkable effort was carried out by the Rotaract club of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colombo with the aims of developing a curriculum for medical students to enable them to communicate and understand the basics of history, in relation to common disorders and during medical emergencies, raising public awareness for the general public and health professionals to inform them about the significance of learning basic sign language and promoting the project; raising awareness in the general public about the importance of learning basic sign language; and improving the awareness in the general public.There are four phases to this project, and the first is the most important one in comparison to the other three. Phase one involved developing a curriculum for medical students so that they could speak with the hearing impaired in an emergency. The medical scenarios are the main focus of this, and it would be helpful for both patients and undergraduates.
The following objectives are covered under this course:
Acquire basic vocabulary in Asian Sign Language
Skills to introduce oneself and initiate a conversation using sign language
Skills to identify essential day-to-day scenarios of a hearing-impaired person
Basic skills to identify a medical emergency in a hearing-impaired person
Phase 2 involves creating a video series on the aforementioned curriculum and incorporating it into the undergraduate medical program. Phase 3 of the project was designed to produce an educational video series on finance, fundamental legal principles, and typical health issues for the deaf community and disseminate them via a video streaming website like YouTube.Phase 4 involves requiring the assistance of island-wide top supermarkets imparting the necessary signals that they require. The project was promoted in a variety of methods, including through social media, celebrity endorsements, newspaper articles, television, promotional videos, and other Rotaract clubs.
As project beneficiaries, members of the team hope to: develop qualified healthcare workers who can communicate with patients who have speech impairments; introduce and foster a safe environment for the deaf and mute community in daily life; enhance social harmony and close communication gaps; quickly recognize medical emergencies to increase the patient’s chance of survival, and foster a safer environment for speech impaired patients in both medical and non-medical settings.
Bronze- Manusath Handa – University of Moratuwa
“Manusath Handa” is one of the largest projects undertaken by the University of Moratuwa Rotaract club, focused on students who are interested in learning but visually impaired. The club members came up with the idea to provide certain fundamental O/L study resources that were not available in braille and were also excessively pricey. The Rotaractors made the decision to offer the recorded versions of these materials after that.
Phase 1, ordinary exam papers are recorded and copied onto CDs. After distributing them to schools for students with disabilities, the first step was effectively completed. Following phase 1, the team moved on to phase 2, in which they recorded newspaper articles from the “Vijaya” newspaper and posted the list of articles on the WhatsApp group once a week. As in the first phase, documented articles have been copied to the CDs and distributed among the schools. The next stage involved establishing an online library in association with the University of Moratuwa Rotaract Club’s IT department. This was created to give people a place to work remotely.
Many thanks to all our fellow clubs and Rotaractors who shared their tales of victory with us. Keep an eye out for the fourth article of this novel series!
Written & Compiled By:
