Month In Review: September

Ahoy there, mateys!

Our newly established article series recapping each month’s highlights (Month in Review) returns! This time with a scoop on all things project related for the month of September. Here’s a brief overview of the club’s completed projects for the month followed by a tease of our ongoing projects.

Mithudam 2.0

‘Mithudam 2.0’ is an ongoing project initiated back in July by the Community Service Avenue of Rotaract Arts along with the Leo Club Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, that envisioned to bridge the prevailing digital gap faced by students in the country. The project commenced in July and aims to provide mobile phones to students in schools facing difficulties in accessing online education. The initial idea was to donate these mobile devices to children present in the Kurunegala district, but due to unavoidable circumstances the location had to be changed elsewhere and as a result, we settled on a school located in Meegammana, Kandy.

The project was due to be completed in mid-August but had to be pushed back to September due to logistical complications caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The mobile phones were ordered back in August by our President, Rtr. Anudi Karunaratne through Zoom which was done in the presence of Rtr. Sithmi Edirisinghe (our Community Service Director) and Leo Nipun Ranasinghe to ensure transparency. As the grand total of the cost of the phones was lower than the budgeted amount the club collected, the remaining funds were then used to purchase other stationery and complimentary items such as earphones among other things. The phones were eventually handed over to five students of Meegammana Junior High School by our Co-Vice President Rtr. Sandali Rupasinghe.

The project concluded after the outcome of the project was shared on our social media. Further, as a token of our appreciation, the donors who provided the funds to purchase these mobile devices received an email that consisted of a token of appreciation and documentation including bills to maintain transparency.

Sandwiches & Skittles

‘Sandwiches and Skittles’ was a virtual club picnic organized by the Club Service Avenue of the Rotaract Club of University of Colombo Faculty of Arts. The club picnic is a traditional event here at RotaractArts held to create a platform for the new and old members of the club to get to know one another. However, this time around the event was organized virtually due to the prevailing situation. This year’s picnic was an interactive session filled with games and entertainment segments which was chaired by non-other than Rtr. Thamashi Adithi. The main objective of this project was to create a platform where the club members could get to know each other and bond over. Further, this project was organized to provide the members an opportunity to have some fun and enjoy themselves, especially during a time when physical activities are restrained.

In terms of PR, considering that the project was exclusively for the members of Rotaract Club of University of Colombo Faculty of Arts, the flyers and necessary PR material that we designed was circulated amongst our social media platforms and internal WhatsApp groups to inform the club members about the event, and to encourage them to join in.

The event provided our members an opportunity to get to know one another, and to build and improve fellowship among them. This is a crucial outcome for us here at RotaractArts as we identify fellowship as a fundamental factor that contributes to our success as a club. We can confirm that the event was filled with so much interaction, entertainment, and laughter! We would know as our sides hurt by the end of the event due to all the laughter! By the end of it all, it was clear that all the members who took part had a wonderful and memorable experience.

Skill Up

The project “Skill Up” is a Public Relations initiative organized by the Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts. It took place on the 10th and 11th of September 2021. The main objective of the project was to make fellow members comfortable with the digital world and teach them the basic skills essential to design material for Public Relations. This included areas such as graphic designing, video making, editing, and flier making and aimed to also convey to the audience the importance of these skills in the corporate world.

In terms of our PR efforts surrounding the project, we decided to promote the webinar series through the flyers which introduced the resource persons. Thus, the introductory posters accompanied with their captions highlighting the webinars were designed and then shared along with the registration form from 08th September up until the day of the webinar.

The webinar on the 10th of September which focused on graphic designing and flier making was conducted by Ms. Hashini Dilshara and Mr. Siraj M Naufer. The webinar on 11th September which revolved around video making and editing was conducted by Mr. Akthar Farvees. Our very own, Rtr Amasha was the moderator for both these sessions.

We believe that we were able to successfully share knowledge about content creation through ‘Skill Up’. We had a participation count of just over 20 and we hope that through this project they were able to acquire numerous skills, namely, learning how to use online designing applications such as Canva, improving their teamwork, communication skills, and creative skills.

Ongoing Projects

o  ‘ The Bare Niceties’ by Professional Development

o   ‘Academic Writing 101’ by Professional Development

o   ‘Writing Clinic 2.0’ by Professional Development 

o   ‘Athwal’ by Community Service 

o  ‘Forget-Me-Not’ by Community Service 

o  ‘Kuppiya ’21’ by International Service 

– The Editorial