Rotary is an organization of business, professional and government leaders united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the worl. It is the world's first service organization.

Rotary International (RI) is over 100 years old and perhaps the largest non-government community service organization in the world, is working in 168 countries with over 32,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members.

The Rotary Club of Delhi Garden City, an affiliate of Rotary International, was chartered in 1989. It is an active and leading Rotary Club. Its members represent a wide cross-section of society, and include leaders from industry, diplomats, professionals, academia, NGOs, and the like.

Being a part of Rotary International, we actively support and service programmes, such as Polio Plus, Cancer Foundation, Education Foundation, Youth Exchange Programme, Ambassadorial Scholarship, Rotary Blood Bank, to name a few. The Rotary Blood Bank in Delhi and Rotary Cancer Institute at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences are among the internationally known examples of the community service projects undertaken by the Rotary movement.

Our club has undertaken several community service projects which are regularly visited and continuously funded by our club. These include:

Balgram, an Orphanage at Village Rai (Sonepat, Haryana)

In 1999, the Rotary Club of Delhi Garden City adopted Balgram. This project fully meets the social welfare objective of the Club especially since it is an Orphanage and has a predominance of girl orphans. These young girls come from the neglected segments of our society and therefore, need help. After going through the problem of the institute, our club decided to concentrate on three main aspects (i.e., Health, Repair and Maintenance of the building, and Education).

The building was repaired, internal sanitary fittings, pipes, leaking traps were replaced, electrical switches, boards, wiring, etc., were replaced. This effort was taken up under the "Children Opportunity Matching Grant No. 610" of the Rotary Foundation. The project was completed in the year 2000.

There are 12 homes in the campus. Every home houses 8 to 10 children and each home is looked after by a mother. All the facilities needed in a home (like kitchen, bathroom, study room, wrdrobe, table, and chairs) are provided to give the children a home-like atmosphere. The present strength is 120 orphan children. School going children are admitted in the adjoining schools including Moti Lal Nehru Sports School, Rai.

After completing the project under the said grant, the Rotary Club of Delhi Garden City is funding the project on a continuous basis. We are supplementing food by providing milk and fruit on a daily basis to give the children a balanced diet. The children have shown a marked improvement in their health.

We also took responsibility to improve education standards by providing extra tuitions in Maths, Science and English. Three teachers have been hired on a regular basis since inception to do this job. There is a vast improvement in their education standards of the children and it gives us immense pleasure that more and more children are coming up with good results each year.

Keeping vocation training in mind, our Club has recently provided two new computers to impart computer literacy to the children. The Club has also provided a DVD to Balgram for the children's entertainment.

Under the District Simplified Grant, our club donated sports goods to the children in Balgram in February 2010. These included table tennis tables, complete cricket equipments, badminton nets and rackets, footballs, volleyballs, carom boards, chess sets, etc.

The children were also the beneficiaries of our Hepatitis B Vaccination program where 150 children and staff at this center received three doses of the vaccine to provide them lifetime immunity from Hepatitis B.

Our club spends approximately Rs. 4.00 lakhs per annum on this project since inception on the food supplement and tuitions, besides one-time expenses on computers, DVD and sports items. An air-conditioned, fully equipped mobile dental van is regularly deputed for dental checkups/treatment of the children.

This project was awarded the "Significant Achievement Award" by Rotary International in the Rotary year 2006-07.

Basti Vikas Kendra Slum School (Srinivaspuri)

This project is on the periphery of a big slum at Srinivaspuri. Children of the casual labourers who have to go out to earn a day's livelihood, leave their children between the age group of 3 to 6 years at this Balwadi for full day care. Children are provided primary education, mid-day meal, uniforms, toys, and medical checkups. There are 60 children in this Balwadi. We have contributed more than Rs. 75,000 per year on this project for the last nine years.

In Rotary year 2009-10, under the District Simplified Grant, our club donated sports and recreational toys to these young children.

Our Club was awarded the "Significant Achievement Award" for this project by Rotary International in the Rotary year 2008-09.

Don Bosco Ashalayam (Dwarka)

To address the problem of child abuse/street children, our club adopted a new project at the Don Bosco Ashlayam (DBA) in Dwarka. DBA has built a network to pick up run away destitute children from locations such as the railway stations and bus terminals. The children are screened and given shelter, food, clothing, vocational and formal education. These contacts and involvement with the children paves the way for their upliftment to become responsible citizens. Our club has adopted 15 children and spends approximately Rs.75,000 per annum on them through DBA. Recently, our club organised a Dental Camp where a mobile dental van screened and treated over 150 children.

Under the District Simplified Grant scheme, our club provided sports goods to the children at Don Bosco Ashalayam which included table tennis tables/rackets, cricket equipments, footballs, badminton nets/rackets, basketballs, volleyballs, carom boards, chess sets, etc.

Able Charitable Organisation (Behrola)

Our club supports Able Charitable Organisation, a NGO doing excellent work in the field of medical care of widows, children education and health. Serving the rural population, Able Charitable Hospital is a big modern hospital manned on a 24-hrs basis in Behrola, Palwal. Apart from a Charitable Hospital, they have programmes like medical care to widows below poverty line, free medical and education to orphans and children of widows, etc. Our club adopted 10 widows and their children for medical care and education contributing Rs.80,000- each year on this project.

Baas Village Girls Scholarship Scheme, Tikli (Gurgan, Haryana)

Under this project, three girls are chosen annually on conclusion of grade V on scholastic merit and granted a scholarship to take them through senior school (i.e., through grade VI to XII). To ensure that the aid is distributed to the needy, the chosen candidate is short listed from families who own no land and have no member as a government employee (i.e., their families are just casual labourers). The promise is that the scholarship will continue to be paid till the end of grade XII as long as they continue to pass their exams and their attendance is good. The scholarship amount of Rs.1000 per child is disbursed in April to cover uniforms and school books for the year, and Rs.100 per month disbursed to the family as compensation for the loss of one pair of hands.

Our club has also provided toilet facilities, plumbing work, tables and chairs, as well as overhead fans to the village primary school at Bas Village, Tikli (Gurgaon) in partnership with an International Club--the Rotary Club of Bristol, UK--at a total cost of Rs. 1.06 lakhs. We have also provided drinking water tube wells under a District Simplified Grant at a cost of Rs. 46,000.

Baas Educational Trust School, Tikli (Gurgaon, Haryana)

Baas Educational Trust School was keen on introducing a Montessori methodolgy into its Nursery Section to cover children aged 3, 4 and 5. Over 120 children are registered at this school. The purpose of this charity school is to ensure that every child in the three villages covered by one village council receives a good education. In partnership with an international club--the Rotary Club of Narooma, Australia--our Club took up a project to supply Montessori equipment to the school with a project cost of USD $16,500 (Rs. 8.00 lakhs). The project was approved by the Rotary Foundation and the equipment was supplied to the school in February 2010.

Rotary International Pulse Polio Programme

In 1982, RI committed itself to implement the most ambitious humanitarian program to immunize all the world's children to eradicate polio from the face of the earth. With the fourth largest Rotary network in the world, Rotary in India has been playing a significant role in promoting Polio eradicating through its committed volunteers force. We have been allotted a very large area of Badarpur with 240 polio booths and the area is serviced jointly with Rotary Club South East and Rotary Club Chanakyapuri. We provide transport to carry vaccine to various booths and other logistic support on each National Immunisation Day (NID). Our club contributes over Rs. 70,000 each year to sustain our Pulse Polio campaign at Badarpur.

This year, Bill Gates has pledged USD $355 million towards a world-wide Polio eradication drive. He has asked Rotary International to match USD $200 million. Till date, Rotary has collected over USD $100 million for the "End Polio Now" campaign. Our club has raised and donated over Rs. 2.50 lakhs towards this campaign.

Rotary Blood Bank

A five-storied 16,000 sq.ft. centrally air conditioned state of the art Rotary Blood Bank has been set up at 56-57 Tughlakabad Institutional Area, near Batra Hospital, New Delhi. This is a major initiative by Rotary Clubs in-and-around Delhi to provide safe blood to persons in life threatening situations and save our future generations from the scourge of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and C as well as other blood transmitted diseases. The mission statement is "No one shall suffer in Delhi and neighbouring areas for want of blood'.

Our Club supports the Rotary Blood Bank, both financially and by holding blood donation camps in colleges and large commercial establishments every year in order to meet the immense need for the quality blood. In the Rotary year 2009-10, our Club collected 338 units of blood through seven blood donation camps.

Furthermore, to meet the requirement of donor beds for use at blood donation camps, our Club donated the cost of two donor beds (Rs. 41,600) to the Rotary Blood Bank.

Hepatitis B Immunizations

One of our members donated Rs. 1.00 lakh to our Club to be exclusively used for a Hepatitis B immunization program for children. The donation covered the three required Hepatitis B vaccine does for approximately 630 children aged between 6-17 years. This immunization program was done in partnership with the Liver Care Foundation, who provided the doctors, nurses and administrative backup for the campaign. In the coming year, we hope to scale up this immunization program by raising funds to cover all our existing projects as well as work with the Delhi Government to cover their schools, welfare homes, etc.

Contribution to District/RI Programmes

We also support programmes at the RI District level, such Rotary Cancer Foundation, Rotary Education Foundation, Rotary Foundation (India), the End Polio Now drive, and Digital Literacy to name a few.

Free Health Camps

Every year, our Club holds Health Camps, Dental Checkup Camps, Cancer Awareness Camps, etc. Apart from the projects mentioned earlier, some of the other projects our Club has completed under Matching Grant projects are:

Avoidable Blindness

A total of 379 cataract surgeries were performed for the poor and needy at ICARE Hospital, Noida, under the RI Programme of Avoidable Blindness at a total cost of Rs. 3,79,500.

Maruti Van Donation

In cooperation with the Rotary Club Bristol (UK), our Club donated a Maruti Van to The Delhi Brotherhood Society to assist and improve their street children rescue operations.

Blood Donor Couches

In collaboration with the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C. (USA), our Club supplied blood donor couches to the Rotary Blood Bank valued at a total project cost of Rs. 4.20 lakhs.

Braille Books

50 sets of 43 books of different titles were printed in Braille at All India Confederation of the Blind and distributed to 50 blind schools all over India. In addition, a fortnightly magazine "Bal Hans" has been printed in Braille for distribution to these blind schools for a period of six months. Total cost of the project, Rs. 4.22 lacs. This project was undertaken along with Rotary Club Pforzheim (Germany).

Annual Golf Tournament

To promote International Peace and World Understanding, our Club organizes "The Internatioanl Goodwill & Friendship Golf Tournament", an annual golf tournament between our Club and Heads of Diplomatic Missions in New Delhi. Held at the Delhi Golf Club for the past 19 years, it helps to further the Rotary message and image.

Upcoming Projects

Some of the new projects planned for the coming year include a clean drinking water project where our club will provide over 300 special bio filters for clean drinking water to government schools as well as a project that will bring voluntary doctors from the USA to provide free specialist surgeries to children in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

Interact Club

Interact, a Rotary sponsored youth service club provides opportunities for boys and girls of secondary school age to work together in a world fellowship of service and international understanding. We have our Interact Club at the Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Ashok Vihar. Our motivated and enterprising group of youngsters participate in a wide range of activities and are doing us proud indeed.

Last year, our Interact Club received the Rotary International Presidential Certification in recognition of its efforts. This year, it received the District Governor's citation for the best Interact Club in the district.

One of our Interactors, Ashwinder Kaur, has been elected as Zonal Interact Representative (ZIR). Our compliments and congratulations to her and the school.

Rotaract  Club

The purpose of Rotaract is to provide an opportunity for young men and women to enhance the knowledge and skills that will assist in personal development, to address the physical and social needs of their communities and to promote better relations between all people worldwide through a framework of friendship and service. Rotaract clubs are composed of young adults, between the ages of 18 and 30, who are residing, employed, or studying within the vicinity of sponsoring Rotary Club.

To fulfil this goal, this year our club is planning a Rotaract Club, namely IMM Rotaract Club, which will be chartered soon.