Cleft Lip Surgery
September 2001, Mission Viejo Rotary began a World Community Service project with the
Rotary Club of Poona. A Poona Rotarian and Surgeon volunteered to do the corrective surgery
on each needy child at a cost of only $50.00 (US Dollars). The Poona Club matched dollar for
donations from our club. In 2002 we donatewd $500.00 and 2003 we donated $1,000.

 
Before and after.....and a gigantic
difference in his life!


Toilets  for Girl Students
  One project was the establishment of girls
 restrooms (toilets) in a local school were previously
outdoor trenches were the only facility available which
was very embarrassing for the girls.

SOLAR COOKERS PROJECT
REPORT 7-18-98
Phase One
Poona India Club completes first phase of the joint project
on June 24, 1998 by presenting and training 17 good quality
Solar Cookers to 17 qualified ladies. See Photos following this report.
This project entailed the following :
a) Select the right women from the lower economic section of Society, who could
be trained and would make use of the Solar Cooker for their daily cooking (This
took time).
b) Suitable training for the selected women by a capable Instructo on practical
useof the Solar Cooker for cooking the type of mea that the participants are used to
(selecting suitable Solar Cooker took time).
c) Conduct a weeks training under Supervision.
d) Provide an adequate incentive for learning and,
e) Finally, present each participant with one Solar Cooker each for their home
cooking.
With careful planning, the women selected were the wives workers of a Small
Scale Manufacturing company called TRAN ELECTRONICS PVT. LTD. Most of
the women live in Slum environment, but had the required intelligence level to
learn and us the Solar Cooker. By use of Solar - Cookers, they would be able t save
30 to 40 percent on their cooking expenses. They would b able to devote an
additional hour or two to their domestic chores.

To train them, an adequately trained instructor was brought in, who taught the
participating women in the practical use of Solar Cookers. On each training day,
every woman participant brought provisions from their home which they cooked
under Supervision of the Instructor. On two occassions, all the cooking done was
partaken by the participants. The Solar Cooking lessons ended in a picnic I
Thisperiod was from 17 June to 24 June98, culminating in presentation of the Solar
Cookers to the participants on 24th June.
The requisite incentive was provided from the first day when all participants were
informed that the best three would be given prizes. This incentive created a very
healthy competition among the 17 participants, as can be seen by
photographs.

On the final day, 24 June'98 the Solar - Cookers were presented to the participants
by Ann Sunita Shah - The Presidents spouse in the presence of a number of
Rotarians and Anns of the Rotary Club of Poona. So that they value the Solar -
Cooker, a token charge of Rs. 100/- per Solar Cooker was charged from each
participant.
In conclusion, this successful experiment has provided us precious and practical
experience to undertake more such projects. We are confident that all
contributions coming from RID 5320 would be utilised fully and correctly for
promoting Solar - Cooker use by a section of our Society which needs it.
The Rotary Club of Poona records its appreciation for our Sister Club, the Rotary
Club of Mission Viejo for their contribution for the cause of promoting the use of
Solar Cookers. And Further, it also places on record that the use of Solar - Cookers
by the participants will be ensured due to the Instructor visiting the homes of
the 17 participants and reporting to us for a period of 3 ensuring months.
PP Col Krishna Mathur
Coordinator Solar Cooker Projects
District 3130

India Clothing Drive

"From 19th to the 28th of September (1999), we went to the  poor tribal villages  and gave them numbered identity cards and asked them to come to the gymnasium of Good Shepherd Public School  on the 29th of September. The  clothes were distributed  to them and we found that they were overwhelmed  to receive same. The total number of beneficiaries were over 3000  inclusive of children."
"Our sincere thanks to Mr Richard Frieder, from District 5320, who had taken so much  strain to see that this project came through. Our thanks also to District 5320 , California , USA and Rotary Club of Mission Viejo for having sent us clothes valued  approximately 6000 pounds.

""Rotarians, Rotary Ann's and Inner Wheel  members were  present to open  up all the boxes, sort them, pack them in pick up bags  and wrote  the type of clothing and size."
Srinivas Rao, President, Rotary Club of Nilgiris West, District 3200, India