“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. We don’t know what our destiny will be, but one thing we do know: the only ones among us who will be truly happy are those who have sought and discovered ways to serve.
Sustainable community service entails lending a helping hand to anyone unable to do a task on their own. It is used every day around the world to help the environment and its beings ethically. Serving others tends to change one’s perspective on society. The experience is humbling because it opens our eyes to things that we may take for granted, such as necessities like food, water, shelter, and education. Let us read out the Sustainable Community Service projects in 2020-21 that have won the best recognition which is guaranteed to yield benefits that will last longer.
“තමන්ව සොයාගත හැකි හොඳම ක්රමය අනුන්ට සේවය කිරීමෙහි ඔබ ව අහිමි කර ගැනීමයි.”
– මහත්මා ගාන්ධි
අප ලද දෙයින් ජීවනෝපාය සලසා ගන්නා අතර දෙන දෙයින් ජීවිතයක් සලසන්නෙමු. වටිනා ජීවිතයක් වන්නේ, අනුන් වෙනුවෙන් ජීවත් වූ දිවියක් ය. අපගේ දෛවය කුමක් ද යන්න අපි නො දනිමු. නමුත් අප දන්නා එක් දෙයක් ඇත. ඒ අප අතරින් සතුටින් සිටින්නේ සේවය කිරීමට මාර්ගයක් සොයා ගත් පුද්ගලයන් ය. තනියම කාර්යයක් කිරීමට නොහැක්කන් හට අත දීම තිරසාර සමාජ සේවයේ ඇතුළත් වේ. එය ලොව පුරා පරිසරය සහ ජීවීන්ට සදාචාරාත්මකව උපකාර කිරීමට උපයෝගී කර ගනී. අනුන්ට සේවය කිරීම යම් පුද්ගලයකු සමාජය දකින කෝණය වෙනස් කිරීමට මුලපුරයි. අප සුළුවට තකන ආහාර, ජලය, නවාතැන්, අධ්යාපනය ආදී අවශ්යවතාවයන් පිළිබඳ අපගේ දෑස් විවර කොට නිහතමානි බවක් ඇති කිරීමට මෙම අත්දැකීම් සමත් වේ. දිගුකාලීන අස්වැන්නක් සහතික කළ 2020-21 වර්ෂයේ හොඳම ව්යාපෘති ලෙස හඳුනා ගැනුණු තිරසාර සමාජ සේවා ව්යාපෘති පිළිබඳ මෙලෙස කියවා දැනගමු.
“உங்களை நீங்கள் அறிந்து கொள்ள ஒரு சிறந்த வழி எதுவென்றால், பிறருக்கு சேவை செய்வதில் உங்களை அர்பணித்துக் கொள்வது தான்.”
-மகாத்மா காந்தி
நாம் எதைப் பெறுகிறோமோ அதை வைத்து வாழ்க்கையை நடத்துகிறோம் ஆனால் மற்றவர்களுக்காக வாழ்ந்த வாழ்க்கை மட்டுமே பயனுள்ளது. எங்களுக்கு எது விதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது என்னவென்று எங்களுக்குத் தெரியாது, ஆனால் நம்மில் உண்மையிலேயே மகிழ்ச்சியாக இருப்பவர்கள் மற்றவர்களுக்கு சேவை செய்பவர்களே என்பதில் ஐயம் இல்லை. நிலைபேறான சமூக சேவை என்பது சொந்தமாக ஒரு பணியைச் செய்ய முடியாத எவருக்கும் உதவிக்கரம் நீட்டுவதாகும். இது, உலகம் முழுவதும் ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் சுற்றுச்சூழலுக்கும் அதன் உயிரினங்களுக்கும் நெறிமுறையாக உதவுகிறது. மற்றவர்களுக்கு சேவை செய்வது சமுதாயத்தின் மீதான ஒருவரின் கண்ணோட்டத்தை மாற்றும். இவ்வனுபவம் நாம் எமது வாழ்க்கையில் இயல்பாக பெற்றுக்கொண்டுள்ள பாக்கியங்களை நினைவூட்டி, அதன் மூலம் எம்மிடத்தில் பணிவை ஏற்படுத்தும். 2020-21 ஆம் ஆண்டின், சிறந்த அங்கீகாரத்தைப் பெற்ற பேண்தகு சமூக சேவைத் திட்டங்களை நோக்குவோம். அவை என்றும் நிலைத்திருக்கும் நன்மைகளைத் பெற்றுத் தருவது உறுதியாகும்.
Gold – Manusath Handa (Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa)
For its profound impact on the Sri Lankan visually impaired community, a project adored by not only club members but a whole community of volunteers thoroughly merited its distinction as the world’s best Rotaract project on differently-abled children, project Manusath Handa wins the hearts of everyone.
Manusath Handa – Voice of Humanity is a great endeavour aimed at improving the educational status of visually challenged pupils across the island. It focuses on giving easy access to education for the said audience by transforming subject matter from their curriculum into audio format.
Students studying for the G.C.E Advanced Level and G.C.E Ordinary Level are the major emphasis of Manusath Handa. Students can listen to past paper questions and answers that have been narrated and converted into audiobooks. The project reached a major milestone with the launch of Sri Lanka’s first and largest online audiobook library, “Manusath Handa e-library”, which featured 500+ audiobooks recorded with the cooperation of over 160 Rotaract volunteers and beyond. In addition, the voice recordings were transferred to DVDs and delivered to the appropriate schools and organizations throughout Sri Lanka.
As Manusath Handa grew, it expanded its reach to include visually handicapped Tamil students, resulting in the creation of the “Manitattin Kural” sub-project. Later, an open web forum called “Inclusive SL” was dedicated to discussing inclusive education and employment for differently-abled communities and notable capabilities of the differently-abled who can make a change to the country.
The icing on the cake for the year perhaps came in the latter half of the year with the project Manusath Handa reached the pinnacle of bringing prestigious international glory to Sri Lanka as the International Single-club Awardee in the 2020-21 Rotaract Outstanding Project Awards South Asia Region.
Click here to find out more about this award winning initiative.
Silver – VACA (Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Medicine)
“Voice Against Child Abuse” is a project executed by the RACUOCFOM in raising public awareness of a matter affecting our future generations. Due to the ignorance and negligence of the society, the blooming flowers being torn apart and the voice against child abuse project carried out with the noble aim of preventing child abuse.
Project implemented amidst the covid-19 pandemic spotlighting the crucial matter concerning child abuse which increased noticeably during the lockdown period. The project was conducted in 2 phases with the aim of raising public awareness, educate and encourage the public to be a voice who helps to prevent child abuse and most importantly they empowered the younger society to stand up for themselves.
- Phase 1 – Be the voice
Awareness-raising campaign conducted concerning the country’s worsening situation regarding child abuse.
- Phase 2 – Be the change
Several steps were implemented to prevent child abuse and empowered the society to make a change and to build a safer society for our younger generation.
The award-winning project, Voice against child abuse was concluded making a remarkable impact, implementing numerous activities to protect the blooming futures. Namely,
- An initial awareness post series,
- A series of events to commemorate the “World Day for prevention of child abuse”
- An article series
- 40 voices video
- Prevention post series
- A syllabus and volunteer course
- Debate among schools
- Cartoon for children on Dood Touch and Bad Touch
- VACA theme song
- VACA app
- VACA conference: The Final Pledge
Click here to find out more about this award winning initiative.
Bronze – Dream Village (Rotaract Club of Chunnakam)
An outstanding project implemented by the Rotaract club of Chunnakam, In the year 2020 and yet to be continued and concluded after 5 years period of building up the dream village “Thaiyiddy”. The project planned to be carried out over the years in aiming the long-lasting development and growth in the village Thaiyiddy and the individuals, which definitely would not be a dream in 5 years’ time.
Village Thaiyiddy, facing numerous complications in the areas of economy, education, medicine, transportation, and resource scarcity, with the village’s complications brought to the attention of the Rotaract club of Chunnakam, they have initiated the necessitated project Dream village.
Superlative projects were carried out in abundance by these tireless Rotaractors which is really challenging to express admiration for, yet let us note down the subjects.
- Projects to guide the societies in the village
- Individual guidance and awareness related projects
- Individual nurturing & awareness related projects
- Projects related to educational development
- Projects related to physical resource development
- Hygiene
- Events
- Formation of village level group
Click here to find out more about this award winning initiative.
Thank you to all fellow clubs and fellow Rotaractors for providing us with the details. Stay tuned for the seventh article of this novel series.
Written and Compiled by:
