‘The love for one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?’
– Pablo Casals
Going ‘beyond borders’ is definitely one of the greatest aspects of the service provided by Rotaract in order to make sure that we contribute in making a difference in other people’s lives above geographical barriers. Through these movements, it showes that no matter how diverse we consider different nations to be, in the end we all face equal problems and that our neighbor is just as same as us. Leading along those lines the following are a few of such initiatives that have been taken by our fellow clubs which were recognized in the 32nd Rotaract District Training Assembly under the category ‘The most innovative international service initiative’.
‘තමන්ගේ රටට ආදරය උතුම් දෙයක්. නමුත් ආදරය මායිමේ නතර විය යුත්තේ ඇයි?’ – පැබ්ලෝ කැසල්ස්
‘දේශසීමාවලින් ඔබ්බට’ යාම අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම Rotaract විසින් සපයනු ලබන සේවයේ විශිෂ්ටතම අංගයක් වන අතර එය භූගෝලීය බාධකවලට ඉහළින් වෙනත් ජන ජීවිතවල වෙනසක් ඇති කිරීමට අප දායක වන බවට සහතික වේ. අපි විවිධ ජාතීන් කොතරම් විවිධ ලෙස සැලකුවත් අවසානයේ අප සියලු දෙනාම එක හා සමාන ප්රශ්නවලට මුහුණ දෙන බවත් අපගේ අසල්වැසියා අප හා සමාන බවත් මෙම ව්යාපාර තුළින් පෙන්වා දී ඇත. පහත දැක්වෙන්නේ 32 වැනි Rotaract දිස්ත්රික් සමුළුවේදී ‘වඩාත්ම නව්ය ජාත්යන්තර සේවා මුලපිරීම’ යන කාණ්ඩය යටතේ පිළිගැනීමට ලක් වූ අපගේ සහෝදර සමාජ විසින් ගනු ලැබූ එවැනි මුලපිරීම් කිහිපයකි
‘ஒருவருடைய நாட்டின் மீதுள்ள அன்
‘எல்லைகளுக்கு அப்பால்’ செல்வது
Gold – Rotaract Mora Model united nations 
The project was carried out by the Rotaract club of University of Moratuwa and this was featured as one of their revolutionary international services projects. As it is mentioned in the name itself the project was carried out as a simulation of the Model United Nations. The members who participated in the conferences were assigned various countries where they discussed on timely topics and issues of the world
There were 3 main areas discussed under the project. The first was called ‘A Terrorism-Free World’ which was focused on raising awareness about terrorism around the world. One of the main things put forward was that the first step towards a terrorism-free world is to identify that above all the barriers that separate us – race, religion, nationality, or complexion, that we are all human and that we are all equal. After all Noam Chomsky says, “Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s an easy way: Stop participating in it.” Many other areas like recent terrorist attacks and how to reduce such were also discussed under this topic.
The 2nd topic was called ‘A beacon for blind’, which it discussed blindness and vision impairment. The amount of people who are subjected to partial or complete blindness is around 2.2 billion. The discussion was focused on creating a world where blindness is not a weakness. Technological development which has led to a huge improvement in helping these people was mainly highlighted and what other steps can be taken to uplift the lives of these people were also discussed.
The 3rd area was called ‘The Xpress pearl disaster’ and this was focused on the incident which happened on the 20th of May 2021 where the 2-month old vessel called the Xpress pearl which was at an anchorage 9.5 nm (nautical miles) off Colombo Harbor coming from India which caught on fire caused by a chemical reaction due to alleged inadequate cargo packaging. The environmental damage as well as the damage to the livelihoods of the people in the coastal area was immense and these issues and solutions and further steps for them were discussed in this area.
Silver – Sahithya – Rotaract Club of Colombo Central
Project Saahithya was done with the idea of celebrating global literature. It was hosted by Rotaract club of Colombo Central along with 4 different Rotaract clubs from 4 different countries. This project had 4 faces each looking into different areas of literature. Phase 1 started off with a general introduction to the literature that can be seen in the 4 hosting countries. It was then followed by a live demonstration session of digital illustration by a Sri Lankan artist. Phase 2 was a panel discussion on the broad topic of “The Contribution of Literature to the Economy”. It was then followed by an interactive crossword puzzle and a movie review. Phase 3 included a webinar conducted by the writers on the topic ‘Moving Through Experience’. This also included an interactive competition on global literature. Phase 4 was a book donation to a needy school. In these ways project Saahithya was able to contribute to the betterment of people through Literature.
Bronze – Heal the world – Rotaract club of University of Sri Jayawardhanapura
Project ‘Heal the world’ was a novel initiative taken by the international services avenue of Rotaract club of University of Sri Jayawardhanapura with the aim of going hand-in-hand with everyone to spread the joy of peace and eliminate conflicts among the global population and to create a better atmosphere to live all humans in peace and harmony.
This project was done in relation to International Peace Day which falls on the 31st of September. The project had 3 phases where in the 1st phase photographs and videos were shared under the themes ‘Ruin the world ‘and ‘Heal the world.
In the 2nd phase, several training sessions were held to raise awareness about establishing peace and resolving conflicts. As the third phase of the project was conducted as an insightful virtual discussion about “World Peace and Harmony”. The informative session was conducted via zoom platform for both local and international audiences, and the speaker was a well-known peace activist and peace advocator, Mr. Janith Perera.
Thank you to all fellow clubs and fellow Rotaractors for providing us with the details necessary for this article. Stay tuned for the ninth article of this novel series.
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