Saturday, July 6, 2013

Installation Ceremony 2013-14

Venue Patan High School, Patan Dhoka
Date 06 Jul 2013
Installation of the new President and the Board Members for the Rota Year 2013-14 and oath taking. Handover of the Charter Certificate, Gong, Gavel and President's Collar to the new President by the outgoing President. Induction of new members and review of the past Rota Year along with fellowship.
Chief Guest: Rtr. Anish Bajracharya, DRCC 2013-14
Guests: Rtr. Sunil Gupta, President 2013-14, Rotary Club of Patan South
Rtr. Ashish Chaulagain, DRR 2013-14
Rtr. Sushil Karki, ADS 2013-14

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Blood Donation Camp



   We volunteered in the blood donation camp organised by RAC Patan South on December 29th, 2012 in the Jawalakhel circle. We worked to publicize the camp and not just did we make sure that the program went smoothly, some of us even donated blood ourselves. At the end of the program, we donated the remaining food packets to the St. Xavier’s School social service center located in Jawalakhel where differently able children are sheltered.

Cancer awareness campaign



Our members participated in a flash-mob at Patan Durbar Square on World Cancer day to promote awareness about the deadly disease.

Community Service at Sparks Orphanage


   Having started the project on 4th May, 2013, the members of Rotaract club of Patan South will be volunteering at Sparks Orphanage, Hariharbhawan every Fridays at 4:00pm and every Saturdays at 11:00 am two hours regularly for two months. During their time there, they will be imparting important skills to children there like: arts, dance and music. Other possible activities would be training the children in sports like football and badminton. They have got free access to the ground in Patan College which is near to their hostel hence making the training possible. At the end of two months we, aspire to put up a show to showcase whatever the children learned there during the two months of time we visited them and invite the Rotarians of our home club.

Rotary Awareness Campaign


As part of our club service project, we helped our home club RC Patan South in its Rotary Awareness campaign or the membership drive. The event took place on August 18th, 2012 at Shaligram apartment hotel. From identifying and approaching prospective Rotary members and inviting them to the event to performing in the event ourselves, we volunteered as well as had loads of fun in the campaign. There were three musical performances from our club which garnered a lot of praises and acclaims. All in all, it was a good learning experience as we got to interact with wide range of people as well as got an opportunity to show off our artistic talents.

Kavre


     On Saturday December 15th, the members of the Rotaract Club of Patan South and the Interact Club of St. Xavier’s School, Jawalakhel had organized a trip to Rayale, Kavre. The trip had been organized with a mission of helping a government school (Shree Bhal Chandra School) that has been operating in the area for quite some time in an attempt to bring quality education to the children living there.
The school has just recently moved into a new building. The new building has spacious classrooms for the children and enough space for proper offices and a computer lab.
The members of the rotaract and interact clubs worked for the school throughout the day. They were mainly tasked with painting the walls in grade 1 and setting up the computers which had been brought for the computer lab. There was also a short program during which the clubs handed over the money collected from fund raisers to the school principal. 

All in all the trip was a fruitful one as both the tasks were completed and the trip also helped build up some fellowship between the members of the club.

Designing your future: The power of goal setting


   As part of the Professional development avenue, the rotaractors participated in an enthralling and deeply inspiring presentation on Designing your future: The power of goal setting by our very own Rtn. Joseph Niroula who is also the president of our home club RC. Patan South. The presentation was held on 7th May, 2013 in Manny’s Tapas bar at 4:30 PM and saw participation of 11 rotaractors and 1 guest. 

In the hour long presentation, Mr. Niroula discussed four major components that help in designing a successful future: Vision, Goal, Self Belief, Thinking differently. He stressed on the need to define a clear goal and give specific instructions so as not to confuse our mind and to base our goal on the three simple questions: What is my goal, Why do I want to achieve it and how am I going to achieve my goal. He constantly reminded us: “Dream. Dream so big, dream so wild that people call you mad.” He highlighted on the difference between the choices of words and reminded us to use positive language while talking to oneself. Eg: to say “I want to be on time for work” instead of “I don’t want to be late”. In order to boost self confidence he suggested a very tried and true technique: to start the day by feeding one’s mind with positive compliments about how awesome one is and how happy he/she is to be alive. He also shared with us three keys to success: “I can do it”, “It is possible” and “I deserve it” that would bolster our self belief and ultimately lead to success. 

Illustrated by gripping examples and witty questions, the presentation was interactive and the whole time, the rotaractors had their eyes glued to the screen and ears stuck to what the presenter was saying. The one video about a differently-able guy named Nick was particularly awe-inspiring and motivating. Despite having no limbs at all, the guy had so much of optimism and self belief that he refused to indulge in self pity for what he did not have. Rather, he set outagainst all odds to show the world the ultimate example of the power of self-belief and to motivate the youths to make the best of whatever they have, to love and accept themselves. [He is one of Germany’s highest paid motivational speakers today]. There were titillating riddles and quizzes in between and Josh sir also never forgot to give gifts of chocolates and a novel to the first ones that answered correctly. 

At the end of presentation, he also shared his vision of Nepal in 2030 which was the picture of present Malaysia-so advanced and highly developed- when in fact Malaysia’s conditions were worse than Nepal’s 25 years back. He expressed his hope that if Malaysia could do it, we definitely could too, as he filled all of us with zest and we effervesced with “We can do it, we will do it” attitude. The seminar formally ended with fellowship hi-tea at 6:30 PM. All in all, the presentation was a great motivation and refreshment for all of us. We hope to hold similar other interesting seminars for our members in the near future.

Charter presentation


   On the 24th of November, the club proudly celebrated its charter day and was officially registered. The program was organized at Patan high school and was honoured with the presence of many senior Rotarians including Joseph Niroula (president of the Rotary Club of Patan South ), Rtn. Sunil Gupta, Rtb. Nawa Raj khatiwada and Rtn. Banik Adhikari. Also present were ZRR. Sameep Pokharel and ZS. Muraj Bajracharya. The president and the vice presidents delivered speech on behalf of the club and also presented on its activities till date. The board and general members performed the oath taking ceremony for their respective responsibilities after which they were handed the appointment letter as well as badges. Though the club has not been less active even before its official charter it has now geared up for more endeavours.

THE PANAUTI ECO-FARM PROJECT


    On 2nd of August 2012, three Rotaract members Rtr.Abhigya Maskey, Rtr.Liza Maharjan and Rtr.Sahara Sedhain along with 3 other high school friends, went for a community service project to the eco-farm home run by an organization named Mission Himalaya at panauti VDC of Kavre district. The orphanage has been established to provide shelter and education along with a proper home for the orphans in the district of Kavre along with some other children brought from the remote areas of the country. We spent two and a half days in the orphanage itself. 

   After an hour long bus ride and around 40 minutes of walking, we reached the eco-farm orphanage situated in the middle of the exotic greenery and lush vegetation of panauti. The orphanage seemed to be very well planned with the requirements of bathrooms, playground, dorms, volunteer rooms managed very well. However, the orphanage is still short of some minor requirements due to a lack of funds at the present time. The construction of the house and most of the basic features were complete but we were in charge of helping with the finishing touches such as white washing the walls, painting the children’s dorm and plastering some places that were left. We also got involved in gardening and leveling the road outside the building. Liza and Abhigya also went for a field visit to gather information about the possible children for the orphanage. Along with us, we also had 3 other foreign volunteers; Tom Young and his 2 sons from the UK, who were also contributing some of their valuable time to help out at the orphanage We were inspired and impressed by their dedication and goodwill, giving back to the society and working hard on a project based in another country. Some of us were really into painting whereas some enjoyed the gardening work. Our effective working style was really admired by the project owners themselves. Apart from the community service we got to explore some of the areas around and in panauti as well. Our long hours of hard work were always well rewarded by the delicious food provided by Sherpa dai who was in charge of the cooking.
The two days spent in Panauti were really rewarding for the orphanage as well as for us. We got a chance to exchange working ideas and skills with each other and learned to work effectively in groups along with getting a chance to experience some types of work we would probably never have given a thought to otherwise.

Charity Show



    To commemorate World Humanitarian Day 2012, RAC Patan south organized a small competition involving the Interact Club of St. Xavier’s and the Rotaract Club of Patan South itself. The competition was launched on the World Humanitarian Day (19 August 2012). Each of the clubs was given a time of one month (until September 19th) in order to raise funds for the project. We believed this project to inspire young rotaracts and interacts to be competitively involved in utilizing their abilities to raise some valuable funds for community purpose. 

    As a part of this competition, RAC Patan South organized its first mega charity event with charity dance and music on the 27th and play on the 28th of September. The dance and the musical performances were held at St. Xavier’s Maitighar. We experienced a very enthusiastic crowd who didn’t miss a chance to cheer for the performers in their loudest voice. Apart from the dance and band performances by the members of the club itself, the show also featured many guest performers. 

    Followed by this event, the charity play was held the next day at St. Xavier’s Jawalakhel. The play titled “The 5th October” was directed and performed by the club members, with Rikesh Maharjan, Sneha Shakya and Rabin Thapa in the lead roles. The play depicted the life and destinies of different characters conveying a serious message as well as not failing to humour the audience.

    The total fund collected from the two shows was Rs.25000. Furthermore, as a part of the competition IC St. Xavier’s also handed Rs50000 from their fund raising activity. The total fund from the events was utilized to aid the treatment of a Rotaractor (Rtr Maneshwor Shrestha from the Rotaract Club of Patan South Lele) who has been diagnosed and is currently being treated for leukemia at the Rajiv Ghandi Cancer Institute in New Delhi. Apart from that, majority of cash was used to finance furniture for Bhalchandara School located at Rayale, Kavre which is one of our club’s special area project. The club members themselves visited the school on 15th of December to hand over the money and also helped out with paintings and some labour work to furnish the school.