Unfolding the TRF magic Rasheeda

Over successive years, The Rotary Foundation has been increasing its goal of collecting donations from Rotarians, so that it can help Rotary clubs around the world do better, bigger, more impactful and more sustainable service projects. “Every year, the RI Board sets a certain goal

Bhagat

for TRF collection. In 2019–20 that goal was $370 million; the next year, 2020–21, the goal was $410 million. As we all know that year started and ended with Covid,” said TRF trustee Bharat Pandya, addressing the multidistrict TRF recognition meeting for zone 5 hosted by RID 3211 in Thiruvananthapuram.

This, added Pandya, surprised many Rotarians, who “thought this was madness. They felt we should have reduced our goal to $350 million from $370 million and not raised it to $410. But thanks to the generosity of people like you, instead of meeting our goal of $410 million, TRF collected $440 million that year.

And that proves the commitment of Rotarians to TRF.”

While individually no Rotarian could do much to change the world, “through TRF we can certainly make our world a better place to live in. TRF is our window to the world. Look through that window and you will find hundreds and thousands of people who do not have access to safe water and proper sanitation.”

Striking a poignant note, Pandya said a peep through the TRF window, and the opportunity it provides, would show them “pregnant mothers struggling with their pregnancy because of lack of access to good and affordable healthcare. Or young girls, 10–11-year-old, pulled out of schools at puberty because there are no separate toilets for boys and girls in their schools.” Or slightly older girls deprived of schooling because they had to walk a few km to reach their schools, and their parents were terrified to put them through this daily risk.

Once a Rotarian had run her eyes through this window, “you have two options; close your eyes and pretend nothing is wrong and go about your business as usual, or do something for them. And the best way to do something is through TRF programmes.”

The Gates Foundation website says that as far as the polio eradication programme is concerned, the world will not be where it is today without Rotary, and the world will not get where it wants to get without Rotary.

Referring to the trustee chair Ian Riseley, who was scheduled to attend the event, but was constrained to address it through a short video clip, as he had to be hospitalised in Mumbai, Pandya said during the beginning of this Rotary year, when Riseley was planning his visit to India, he said India was such an important country that he wanted to come here twice during his year as trustee chair. His first visit to India was in September 2022, and he was very keen to come to zone 5 in South India, “because I told him this zone is not only a top contributor from India, but probably among the 4 or 5 top contributing zones in the world. So he said I must visit that zone and let’s try and have a multidistrict event.”

He thanked RRFC John Daniel for organising the mega event in which EMGA, ARRFCs, and several district governors from zone 5 participated, along with AKS members and major donors. Pandya was all praise for the two mega projects that the Kerala minister for general education and labour V Sivankutty inaugurated — distribution of 1,000 sewing machines donated by PDG John Daniel through his family trust Y Daniel Foundation and 1,000 bicycles donated by EMGA EK Sagadhevan.

Thanking all the generous donors who were attending the multidistrict recognition dinner, including AKS members, the TRF trustee said, “The world of TRF starts at our doorstep and extends to all corners of the world; whether it is setting up a dialysis centre in Thiruvananthapuram, or a blood bank in Bengaluru or Delhi, building check dams in rural parts of RI district 3141 or a huge five-storeyed diabetes facility in Rajkot with funds from TRF, our constant endeavour is to improve people’s lives.”

Pandya went on to give details about the Programs of Scale that TRF has launched, with the first two grants going to Zambia to combat malaria, and Nigeria for mother and child health. In Zambia, this grant of $6 million — $2 million each by the Gates Foundation,

TRF is our window to the world. Look through that window and you will find hundreds and thousands of people who do not have access to safe water and proper sanitation.

World Vision and TRF — had been given to two districts, covering one third of the country. “In the last 18 months, in the areas in Zambia where this programme is fully implemented, deaths from malaria have come down by 50 per cent. That is the kind of impact TRF programmes have.”

In Ukraine too, in eight weeks, for the Ukraine response fund, Rotarians had donated $15 million, and “in the next four months, by September, all the money was disbursed… whether for ambulances, relief material, etc, through 440 grants. And the trustees have now set up a new Ukraine response fund. So many times, we say TRF doesn’t respond quickly. Well, surely, there can’t be a quicker response than this!”

Pandya concluded by saying that today, in the Rotary world, including TRF, India is held in very high esteem. In the last five years, during three years India has been the second highest contributor to TRF, and during the other two years, the third highest. This was a matter of pride to all Rotarians.