Month In Review: January

Hello everyone,

Welcome to this month’s ‘Month In Review’ where we revisit the endeavours of RotaractArts in the first month of the new year!. December was an eventful month and January reflects that. The month of January saw the completion of one project but primarily served as an interim for other ongoing projects that were given priority while the projects for the remaining half of the Rotaract year were being planned.

Completed Projects:

Stop The Spread | Back to School Donation Drive

A community service project initiated by Rotaract District 3220 for the year 2021/22 was ‘Stop The Spread’, an initiative that focused on helping underprivileged schools and small businesses mitigate the effects of COVID-19. ROCUOCFOA chose to carry out the donation drive designed to aid underprivileged schools and was assigned to the Batawala Kanishta Vidyalaya in Padukka. The project was chaired by Rtr. Yeshani Fernando and a team of 9 Rotaractors. Sanitary items were donated to the school to aid in the protection against the COVID-19 virus. A small interactive awareness session was conducted for the students alongside the donation drive. The planning and coordination for the project started on 2^nd November and it was carried out on the 26^th of January 2022. The project was sponsored by the Angel Amma Foundation.

Ongoing Projects:

12^th Installation Ceremony

Due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the situation with COVID-19, the installation for the Board members of the Year 2021/22 was delayed from January 21^st. The installation was to be held on-site in the New Arts Theater of the University of Colombo. However, the committee and the Board Members saw an increase of COVID-19 cases among the Top Board and in the general public of the country and decided to postpone the ceremony to February 2022.

Beneath the Waves

A community service project that fell under the secondary avenue of Environment, Wildlife and Animal Welfare, ‘Beneath the Waves’ was an initiative focusing on marine life conservation. The project was chaired by Rtr. Dinithi Athulathmudali and a team of 4 Rotaractors. The project included two phases; the publication of awareness posters and a webinar. Both phases were scheduled to take place in February and the team oversaw the initial planning in the month of January.

Shell-Out

‘Shell-Out’ was an International Service project scheduled for the month of February. This was another project that fell under the sub-avenue of Environment, Wildlife and Animal Welfare. It was a joint endeavour by the Rotaract Clubs of University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts and Jadavpur Greens in Rotaract District 3291. The project was centered around volunteer work carried out in the Galbokka Sea Turtle Hatchery located in Kosgoda, Sri Lanka. The planning and organizing aspects of the project, such as choosing the Hatchery as well as designing the project to benefit the outcomes of the project were carried out in January after the idea was initially discussed in December of 2021.

The SDG Roundtable

‘The SDG Roundtable’ is an initiative by the Editorial that sought to educate the masses of the responsibilities that we as inhabitants of this planet have towards earth by shedding light on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced by the United Nations (UN). The project is co-chaired by Rtr. Gethmi Adikari and Rtr. Tharini Ratwatte and is planned to span across two phases. The planning for the project mostly took place in September of 2021. The first phase envisions the publication of 17 articles, each one dedicated to each of the 17 SDGs. This phase commenced on the 18^th of January and is still going strong. The articles that were published during the month of January are as follows:

• SDG 1 – No Poverty
• SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
• SDG 3 – Good Health and Well Being
• SDG 4 – Quality Education
• SDG 5 – Gender Equality
• SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation

Other Ongoing Projects:

• ‘Academic Writing 101’ by Professional Development
• ‘Kuppiya ’21’ by International Service
• ‘Enigma’ by the Editorial (Registered under Club Service)
• ‘Forspoken’ by the Editorial (Registered under Club Service)
• ‘Udana’ by Community Service

– The Editorial