In the fall of 2011, the Yale Rotaract Club approached our Board of Directors about the possibility of our Club assisting with the establishment of a 23 bed eye hospital in the village of Pali, a rural area near Mumbai, India.  Mumbai is located on the western coast of India.  The hospital would provide free or subsidized eye care for the poor and needy in that area.  The construction of the hospital itself will be completed in a couple of weeks.

             Our role is to partner with the Rotary Club of Bombay South to obtain a Rotary Foundation Global Grant for $86,500 (to come from various Rotary affiliates including our Club) to purchase equipment for the hospital. 

             Our Club has committed $5,000 of we have raised already $3,000 from individual donors.  Pooja Mehta, a Yale Rotaractor, is coordinating the raising of the other $2,000 from other donors.  Pooja visited the hospital last month.  Our district has committed $7,000 towards the grant.  The piece of the overall Grant provided by the Rotary International Foundation itself is $39,500.

             The grant application was formally submitted in early May, 2012 and is under review by staff of the Rotary International Foundation.  The key partners to this grant are Rotary Club of Bombay Hills South (Host Partner), the Rotary Club of New Haven (International Partner), the Rotary Club of Detroit (contributor), and Rotary Districts 3140 (Mumbai area), 7980 (southern Connecticut and 6400 (Michigan) as well as the Hali Bachooali Hospital (cooperating organization). 

             Our club has a committee for this grant composed of Tom Ayars, Adela Martinez and me.  This project is a terrific example of our club’s commitment to the International Avenue of Service.

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My first experience with the Rotary Youth Olympics couldn’t have been better.  When I first entered the empty field house at Hillhouse High School it seemed incredibly cavernous and quiet.  Then the kids arrived in their multicolored shirts and athletic gear.  They filed into the bleachers overlooking the field, while the volunteers and teachers milled about in preparation for the events.  Shot-put, long jump, and sprints oh my!  Once the kids filed down on to the field for warm-ups, the hollowed field house came alive with energy, and everything seemed to get a little bit closer.

I manned the indoor shot-put with another teacher from the district.  Our two man team was responsible for measuring and marking the throws.  The kids were ready to get going, so we awkwardly tried to coach a little technique, and then let them start throwing.  Every once in awhile the group would flinch from the crack of the starting gun, and sure enough, all the shot-put contestants would migrate to the track a few feet away to cheer on their schoolmates.   Shot-put doesn’t quite have the pull that an old fashioned footrace does.  All in all, I met some great kids with bright futures in whatever they choose to do, and I left the Olympics wishing I had a chance to participate in something like this when I was younger.