Dr.Dinesh
Port Blair, Feb 04: As part of social & philanthropic service, Rotary Club of Port Blair, in association with Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW), and Rotary Club of Ambattur, Chennai team has undertaken a project of distributing slumber kits to underprivileged school students of Hut Bay, Little Andaman. This year, a total of 500 kits were distributed to the students of different schools at distribution points at Government Model School, Hut Bay and at R.K Pur. Little Andaman on 1/2/2019.
The kits were distributed in the presence of members from Rotary Club of Port Blair, President Rajesh Anand, Secretary B.Dinesh Kumar, Rtn. Deepak, Past President & Chairman SCAW Rtn.Dhinakaran, Past President Dr.Dinesh, a volunteer Dr.Snehesh, a six member team from Rotary Club of Ambattur, Chennai, Members of SCAW team, officials of the Education Department and local Panchayat representatives. The Principal and staffs of both the schools coordinated well for the smooth conduct of the programme, which was highly appreciated by the club members. Funded entirely by donations the kit has as many as 25 utility items like Mattress, Pillow, Bed sheets, Pillow covers, mosquito net, Towels, 2 sets of dresses, woolen sweaters, set of Pencils, Colour box, set of note books etc which are procured and put together by the members of the Rotary Clubs who start working months ahead of each distribution, sourcing items and assembling the kits.
Founded 40 years ago, SCAW’s mission is to provide slumber kits to needy children across the globe. Inspired by the sight of his own child sleeping peacefully on her bed, as opposed to images of children in underdeveloped countries settling for the pavement or the bare floor that registered in his mind during his days as a travelling salesman, Mr. Murray Dryden founded SCAW along with his late wife Margaret Dryden. Another reason Dryden felt motivated to reach out to poorer children who couldn’t afford the luxury of a comfortable bed was because he strongly believed that the comfort of a bed is a basic right of a child. Rtn. Rajesh Anand, President Rotary Club of Port Blair said “seeing children happily struggling to carry away the bed kits is itself a reward enough for our Club”.
Rtn. G. Dhinakaran Chairman SCAW, RC Port Blair informed that so far our club has distributed almost 5000 kits since 2009, and the club will strive hard in future to cover maximum underprivileged children of the islands “To identify recipients for the kits the club usually liaise with the Education Dept. and zero in on the most needy children”.
