The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it….
Sustainability was once defined as “Doing Less Harm”, nevertheless it’s about “Doing More Good”. As a responsible human being, one must treat his own self and others along with the environment that he lives, as if he will live on this earth FOREVER. Thereby, sustainability is not only about protecting the environment for the sake of the generations to come, but also about empowering the community that we live in, and Rotaract has never failed to act upon when the society is in need. Here are the four most outstanding projects undertaken by our fellow clubs which were awarded at the 30th District Assembly under the category of “Most sustainable project for the year”.
තිරසාර බව වරක් අර්ථ දැක්වුනේ “අඩු හානියක් කිරීම” ලෙසිනි, කෙසේ වෙතත් එය “වඩා හොඳ දේ කිරීම” ගැන ය. වගකිවයුතු මිනිසෙකු ලෙස, යමෙකු තමාට සහ අන් අයට තමා ජීවත්වන පරිසරය සමඟ සැලකිය යුතුය, ඔහු මෙලොව සදහටම ජීවත් වනු ඇත. එමඟින්, තිරසාරභාවය යනු අනාගත පරම්පරාවන් වෙනුවෙන් පරිසරය ආරක්ෂා කිරීම පමණක් නොව, අප ජීවත් වන ප්‍රජාව සවිබල ගැන්වීම ද වන අතර, රොටරැක්ට් සමාජය කිසි විටෙකත් සමාජයට අවශ්‍යතාවයක් ඇති වූ විට ක්‍රියා කිරීමට අසමත් වී නැත. මේ “වසරේ වඩාත්ම තිරසාර ව්‍යාපෘතිය” යන කාණ්ඩය යටතේ 30 වන දිස්ත්‍රික් සමුළුවේදී ප්‍රදානය කරන ලද අපගේ සෙසු සමාජයන් විසින් සිදු කරන ලද කැපී පෙනෙන ව්‍යාපෘති හතර වේ.
நிலைத்தன்மை என்பது “குறைவான தீங்கு செய்வது” என்று வரையறுக்கப்படினும் “மேலும் நல்லது செய்வது” பற்றியது. ஒரு பொறுப்புள்ள மனிதனாக, ஒருவர் தனது சொந்த சுயத்தையும் மற்றவர்களையும் அவர் வாழும் சூழலுடன் இணைத்து நடத்த வேண்டும்.இதன்மூலம், நிலைத்தன்மை என்பது வரவிருக்கும் தலைமுறையினருக்காக சுற்றுச்சூழலை பாதுகாப்பது மட்டுமல்லாமல், நாம் வாழும் சமூகத்தை மேம்படுத்துவதையும் குறிக்கிறது.மேலும் சமூகத்திற்கு தேவைப்படும்போது ரோட்டரக்ட் ஒருபோதும் செயல்பட தவறியதில்லை.30 வது மாவட்ட சட்டமன்றத்தில் “ஆண்டின் மிகவும் நிலையான திட்டம்” என்ற பிரிவின் கீழ் வழங்கப்பட்ட எங்கள் சக கழகங்களின் நான்கு திட்டங்கள் இங்கே.
Gold – Horowpathana sustainable village (RAC Colombo Central)
Horowpathana Sustainable Village was carried out by the Rotaract Club of Colombo Central at four villages in Horowpathana situated in the Anuradhapura District, with the aim of developing underprivileged rural villages in Sri Lanka.
The Club was able to establish a textile industry within the village, compost manufacturing plants, organic farms and recycling and manufacturing plants which enhanced the economic perspectives of the villagers and introduced them to innovations. Refurbishing schools, constructing libraries, restructuring sports grounds, repairing clinics were also part of this prodigious project.
Through the project the village received new wells, pipelines and water purification systems to help them fight the chronic diseases that were rising in the area. The area was made in to an Environmentally Sustainable and Zero Omission zone by the end of the project. This exceptional initiative was a result of months’ worth of hard work which impacted lives of the villagers forever.
In addition to receiving the gold award in terms of sustainability, the project also won yet another Gold Award under the category of ‘Economic and Community Development’.
Read about it on: https://bit.ly/3fIRUIr
To know about RAC Colombo Central you can follow them on;
https://www.facebook.com/raccolcen/
Gold – Grama Prabodhaya (RAC University of Moratuwa)
Grama Prabodhaya – “In Pursuit of Their Dreams’’, an initiative and an aspiration of the Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa to improve the quality of lives of the tiny remote village of Ranugalla, Monaragala. Rotaract Mora owns the pride and dignity in securing the ‘Single Club International Winner in the year 2016-17 Rotaract Outstanding Project Award’ by Rotary International’ surpassing over 8000 Rotaract clubs in 167 countries. This is not just an honourable moment for Rotaract Mora, rather for the entire nation since this prestigious award was triumphed for the first time by a Sri Lankan Rotaract club.
Outstanding from a typical Community Service project, Grama Prabodhaya turned out to be a collective endeavour to develop an entire village holistically in many respects. The first phase of the project centered on health and nutrition, education, etc. with funding support from Millennium Information Technologies. This was only the beginning of their long journey forward.
It is quite astonishing, that in the upcoming phases of “Grama Prabodhaya”, providing clean drinking water to the entire village and creating employment opportunities, especially for the women in the village would be the major concerns.
As they live by their motto, ‘Serve Above Self’, though many challenges had to be met, Rotaract Mora’s determination to make the village a better place shattered them all.
This outstanding initiative had received the Silver Award under the category of ‘Economic and Community Development’.
Read about it on: https://bit.ly/3fIRUIr
More information can be found on the Mora Blog;
https://blog.rotaractmora.org/
Silver – Haritha Arana (RAC Colombo Midtown)
Haritha Arana is a signature green initiative project executed by the Rotaract Club of Colombo Midtown which was categorized under climate action and life on land. The club was able to successfully implement the project with the help of 20 enthusiastic members guided by the chair Rtr. PP. Akhila Wijetunga. The project was initially planned over a course of 10 years which included the process of reforestation and delivering economic benefits to the nearby community. The reforestation part was carried out under 3 main phases.
Phase 1 focused greatly on growing medium high plants to provide shade and reinvigorate the soil and air. This process also included thorough monitoring and maintenance. Where the Phase 2 focused on planting huge trees for long term purpose. While, the final phase focused on growing multi-layer plants like creepers and shrubs to fight back natural disasters. They ensured higher rate of survival of the plants even with minimal human intervention. Focusing on the livelihood of the community, people from the nearby areas were trained with adequate knowledge and practice to maintain the area of reforestation. The main aim of the project was to convert the place into an attraction point to explore the biodiversity while providing education about reforestation.
More information can be found on;
https://www.rotaractcolombomidtown.org/
Bronze – E-Mithudama (RAC IIT)
Rotaract Club of IIT initiated project ‘E Mithudama’ aiming to enhance the learning environment of dozens of students with the current technology. This remarkable project was firstly commenced in year 2028/19, partnering up with Uniliver to provide computer labs for schools in need. With a sustainable perspective, the project was planned to fulfill the technology needs of 6 schools per year, for 4 years. Not just supplying the equipment but equipping those computer labs from scratch had been done through this project, providing the materials as well as the needed man power. Till this date, project ‘E Mithudama’ has successfully completed the wonderful endowment in 11 schools, allowing the path to knowledge for many souls.
The initiative taken up with the aim of providing a long-lasting service to the education sector, was honored with a Gold Award under the category of ‘Education’.
Read about it on: https://bit.ly/3fM8gQS
More information can be found on the RAC IIT Blog;
https://rciit.org/blog/
Here’s to all the clubs for being the initiators of such amazing projects that would pave the way in creating a sustainable Sri Lanka and a future full of hope for the generations to come, as we owe to leave the world a better place than we found it! As we always say, it’s beyond competing for awards! This category of awards too is yet another driving force for clubs to Strive as One!
Thank you to all our fellow Clubs and fellow Rotaractors for providing us with the details!
Written & Compiled By:
The Blog Team 2020/21
