The month of March for the term 2021-22 of RACUOK was also occupied with many outstanding projects done by young Rotaractors on behalf of Community Service avenue, Professional Development avenue, Sports and Entertainment avenue, Editorial team, Public Relations team, IT team ,Digital Media team and the Member Relations team of the club.
Unveiling a not very much known but an amazing aspect of nature, the project ‘Katuwa’ which was organized by the wild life and animal welfare team of Community Service avenue took place on the 21st of March at Kadol kale in Negombo lagoon area. Prior to the day Snail shells were collected at the university premises and on the 21st with the participation of 27 members Snail shells were placed across the kadol kale lagoon area to be occupied by the hermit crabs. As all the shells were numbered after one month, the team would analyse whether hermit crabs were occupied or not in the shells which they placed. The monetary support which was needed for the project was mainly given by the Amana Insurance PVT LTD.
Furthermore, Community Service avenue took part in the District Project Yaluwa which is a project organized by the District Community Service avenue. Project Yaluwa is the rebranded World Down’s Syndrome Day Celebrations which has been held for the past 10 years by the Rotaract in Rotary International District 3220. It is an initiative by Rotaract in Rotary International District 3220 together with Rotaract clubs of Athugalpura, Chunnakkam, Excellence, Faculty of Science – University of Colombo, Jaffna Midtown, Trincomalee, University Alumni – University of Colombo, Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Kelaniya, University of Peradeniya and Uva Wellassa University – Badulla.This year project was held at Wathupitiwala base hospital and was conducted under 2 main phases. The 1st phase consisted of making a flyer series, awareness video and an interview session with professionals. And during the 2nd phase, World Down’s Syndrome Day was celebrated at the Base Hospital Wathupitiwala with kids affected with Down’s syndrome. And the book on Down’s syndrome; “Yaluwa” was also presented to the staff at the DS unit of the hospital during the celebration.
International Service avenue started the project “One book one Smile”, a joint project with Rotaract Club of Coimbatore Spectrum in India with the aim of collecting and donating books for the library of a school in a rural area. Books were collected at university premises for 2 days. Although it was planned for 3 days, they were able to collect more than 250 books at the end of the 2nd day itself. Hence, the collection of books was concluded on the second day.
Professional Development avenue addressing the new world of crypto currency organized an innovative initiative called “Spectrum” based on new form of crypto currency called NFT. In this project they are planning to launch an NFT collection consisted of digital arts created by young digital artists in the club and the profit earned is planned to use as funding for the future projects of the club. The NFT collection was launched ceremoniously on the 30th of March on Open sea market place and will also be featured at the District Rotary Conference on 2nd of April 2022. As another step of the project, an awareness webinar about the block chain technology which is related to NFTs was also organized by the Professional Development avenue in partnership with the technological partner of the project, Zynergy X Pvt ltd. And it was successfully held on 25th of March with participation of many.
With the purpose of appreciating creativity of members, Editorial team started publishing creative articles on the blog. And also an article covering about Down the Wicket’22 organized by the Sports and Entertainment avenue was sent to the Kelaniya Rotaract club for their blog series. And the Editorial team continued the special day article series coving all the special days of March in remembrance and published articles about completed projects including Down the Wicket’22 while overviewing all the editorial contents of the club.
Digital Media team continued the good work creating all the birthday flyers, special day flyers, member of the month flyers, project flyers and also overviewed all the PR materials for the club.
Project RotaTomorrow by Member Relations team continued to thrive with the innovative efforts of the 10 teams in March too. Phase 2 of project ‘Senehe Diya’ by Team Los Amigos was held on 25th of March at MOH office Mahara while phases 1 and 2 of session 1 of project ‘Akura’ by team Esperanza successfully took place on the 26th march at sri Bodhiraja childrens village, Rambukkana.Rota tomorrow is an initiative by RACUOK to improve fellowship among its members while paving path for the betterment of the club. By dividing the members into groups, the team spirit, leadership qualities, time management, engagement with the other members and fellowship can be improved. Furthermore, the sustainability of the club can also be uplifted by initiating such a project.
Spark X Webinar about online entrepreneurship and freelancing which was organized by the IT team of RACUOK took place on the 26th march at 4pm via zoom. The webinar was conducted by Mr. Nishshanka de Silva giving a valuable opportunity to many young aspiring entrepreneurs and freelancers to start and excel in their passion.
Amidst these activities, career fair 2022 successfully continued to pave ways for the undergraduates to excel in their career path all through the month by conducting series of sessions as well.On the 3rd of March there was a panel discussion on ‘Functional Skills and Corporate Trends.On the 11th of March, a session about ‘How to face an Interview’ and on the 17th of March, a session about ‘Leadership for job performance’.From the 24th of March, the Career Fair Week commenced and the last panel discussion on ‘Development and Growth at a workplace’ was held on the 25th of March. The once in a lifetime grandiose Inauguration Ceremony of Career Fair 2022 took place from 9am onwards on the 31st of March with the participation of many distinguished guests, the Keynote Speaker Mr. Kumar Galhenage and club members representing the five hosting clubs.
Looking forward for a new leadership for the new term 2022-23 the calling of Board applications was also opened on 2nd of March with a public announcement.
Monthly general meeting for the March was held on the 29th march at 7.30pm via zoom and meeting was much more significant because the president elect and secretary elect for the term 2021-22 were announced. Rtr. Manula Pethiyagoda was announced as the president elect and Rtr. Verosha Abeygoonewardena was announced as the secretary elect for the term 2022-23 .Furthermore members of the month, avenues of the month, team leaders of the month and most enthusiastic members of the month were announced commending all the hard work they have put towards the service for the community .
~Written By : Rtr.Madhavi Athulathmudali ~
