Projects

Drinking unsafe water is the root cause of most the health issues, especially amongst children. The ‘Elixir of Life’ Project provides clean drinking water to schools under the “Schools into Smiles” program. Elixir of Life is a convergence of the vision of the two partners - R I Dist 3230 and Coca-Cola India, towards the betterment of the quality of lives of students.

In the first phase, 20 Government schools were provided water purification systems. First of its kind was installed in the Social Service League School, in the Queen Mary's College campus which was inaugurated by Shri. Thangam Thenarasu, Hon'ble Minister forEducation, in the presence of Shri. N.Ram, Chief Editor “The Hindu”. The 20th dedication was held at the Advent School at Kanagam, Taramani in the presence of Shri John Ustas, President Hindustan Coca cola Beverages and Shri N.Ram “The Hindu”

In 2010, 6 corporation schools were selected with strength of more than 1000 students in Chennai and they were provided advanced water purification system at a cost of Rs.81000/- (with annual maintenance of Rs.17000 per year).

List of schools provided with water purification system

• Social Service League School, Mylapore, Chennai – 14
• Villivakkam Panchayat Union Elementary School, Sector - 5,1st Block, West Mugappair
• Govt. Adidravidar Welfare Middle School, Pudupakkam
• Panchayat Union Middle School, Kudimiyandi Thoppu, Panaiyur, ECR Road
• Alinjivakkam Panchayat Elementary School, Jannappan Chattram, Ponneri
• C.S.I. Middle School, No.31, Big Street, Triplicane
• Villivakkam Panchayat Union Elementary School, Aalapakkam
• Govt. Adidravidar Welfare Middle School, Meenambakkam
• Bakthavatsalam Nagar Elementary School, Palavanthangal
• Panchayat Union Primary School, Kandigai
• Villivakkam Panchayat Union School, Sector- 1 , 2nd Block,East Mugappair
• Villivakkam Panchayat Union School, Sector - 2, 3rd Block, East Mugappair
• Villivakkam Panchayat Union School, Sector - 4, 3rd Block, East Mugappair
• Villivakkam Panchayat Union School, Sector - 3, 3rd Block, East Mugappair
• Govt. High School, Thiruvanmiyur
• Ambattur Municipal Middle School , Kamarajapuram
• Municipal Elementary School, NGGO Colony, Thiruvallur
• Govt. Adidravidar Welfare Middle School, Melma Nagar
• Panchayat Union Primary School, Pappanchattram
• Advent Middle School, Kanagam , Tharamani
• Government Girls Hr. Sec. School, Pulla Avenue, Near Shenoy Nagar Park, Shenoy Nagar.
• Chennai Hr. Sec. School, 1, Bharadhidasan Road, Near Marudeeswar Koil, Thiruvanmyur, Chennai – 41
• Chennai Hr. Sec. School, 1, Peeliamman Koil Street, Near IIT, Tharamani, Chennai – 113
• Chennai Hr. Sec. School, Little Mount, Saidapet, Chennai -15
• Chennai Hr. Sec. School, Koyambedu, Chennai
• Chennai Hr. Sec. School, Gangadeeswara Koil Street, Near Police Quarters, Purasawalkkam, Chennai - 84
  
  

In the Rotary year 2012-2013, RI Dist 3230, Rotary Centenary Charitable Trust associated with the Happy Village project and donated Rs. 50,000/- to five Rotary Clubs under Zone-18 to carry out projects including School renovation under their adopted village.

This is one of the important initiative of Rotary Centenary Charitable Trust which was jointly sponsored by Rotary Club of Madras, Rotary club of Madras Pallava who are the pioneering major partners in the Schools into Smiles Projects since 2004 along with other clubs Rotary Club of Chennai Mambalam, Rotary Club of Guindy, Rotary Club of Madras East R A Puram along with The Cherian Foundation. This is a colourful array of programme like fancy dress, singing, skit, dance and speech contest were held at


Sir M ct M Boys Higher secondary school in the month of November, year after year. The students from the renovated 130 Government and Panchayat schools were not only able to showcase their talents, but also get an opportunity to interact with students from the city schools. All the participating children receive a certificate of participation, prizes, schools bags, notebooks, stationery items, caps, eversilver plates etc and provided with breakfast, lunch and snacks.

The school of India’s first President, late Dr. Sarvapalli Radha Krishnan, at Tirutanni where he studied for 7 years was found to be in a dilapidated condition. It was rebuilt in 2 phases and added 14 new class rooms.

Government of Tamil Nadu through Sarva Shiksha Abyan funded this project to the tune of Rs.18 lakhs and rest of the money was raised from Rotarians, Philanthropists, Corporates, NRIs who came forward to donate liberally for this particular school. The total cost of the project was Rs.90Lakhs

Sarvepalli Sivakamu Radhakrishnan Scholarship:


The family of Late President Sarvepalli Dr. Radhakrishnan gave a corpus amount of Rs.10 Lakhs to provide scholarship for academically outstanding students. 5 lakhs designated for girl students and the remaining 5 lakhs for boys. The interest generated form the fixed deposit is given as scholarship to the best girl and a boy student in 10th std and then continued through 11th, 12th and first year of college. Since the original school where our former President studied has grown and split into middle school and high school separately, children from the middle school are also encouraged with smaller scholarships through Centenary Charitable Trust.

In view of the successful implementation of 'Elixir of Life' Project with Coca ColaIndia Inc. in 2008-09, they wanted R I Dist 3230 Rotary centenary Charitable Trust to partner with them in the 'Support my Schools' 'SMS 3' project for renovation of 8 schools in Cuddalore and Chidambaram District along with Charity Aid Foundation, which was completed successfully. Project cost Rs. 8.4 lakhs.

In continuation of successful implementation of SMS3 project, the Charity Aid Foundation with funding from Aircel partnered with R I Dist 3230 Rotary Centenary Charitable trust in the SMS4 campaign in which 50 Schools were renovated viz 33 schools in Chennai (R I Dist 3230), 7 schools in Coimbatore (R I Dist 3201) , 10 schools in Pondicherry (R I Dist 2981) to provide sanitation facilities, access to water/drinking water facilities and providing sports materials. Project cost Rs.65.9 lakhs. In RI Dist 3230 it was executed in association with ‘Sangamithra’ Projects of 2015-16.

With the help of Rotary Club of Madras, we received 2 containers of books from Rotary Club of Washington. The Cherian foundation assisted in distributing these books to over 200 schools.

Rotaractors of R I Dist helped collect and distribute over a lakh of books including old usable Dictionaries, Atlas, Tell Me Why, Comics, Fairy Tales, Subject Guides, Thirukural, National Geographic, Malayala Manorama Year Books. Additionally, libraries were set up in 3 Panchayat and Corporation schools renovated under Schools into Smiles programme. First Library was inaugurated on the 8th September 2009 (International Literacy day) at Social Service League School at QMC.

Here the main aim is to create opportunities for students of Panchayat Schools to interact with students of affluent private schools in the city. Rotary makes such initiatives possible through its Interact Clubs.

To cite a few examples, in 2010 and 2011, Interact club of Sankara Vidyashram, invited 50 students and two teachers from Government ADW School, Thaiyur to their school. At the end of the day, Interact Club of Sankara Vidyashramam donated notebooks, Charts, Books and Chairs.

In 2008 Interactors of Sankara Vidyashram School, Thiruvanmiyur raised Rs 1,00,000 lakh through selling of greeting cards and donated the money to R.C. Madras for projects in schools adopted by RCM. Out of this fund Rs 50,000 was used to install play equipments in Govt ADW Elementary school, Thaiyur which was inaugurated on 27th Feb 2009 by the President of Interact Club of Sankara Vidyashram. More than 20 Interactors participated along with the faculty counsellors. They performed skit and dance on the inauguration day and gifted stationery items to the children. Remaining Rs 50,000 was used to install play equipments in Govt ADW Middle school, Pudupakkam

Digital Literacy Programme was officially launched during the fourth successive year of Schools into Smiles Cultural Fest, which is a self learning interactive CD programme. It helps panchayat School children to learn how to operate the computer on their own.

This is one of most important aspect of TEACH (T-E-A-C-H" which stands for:-Teacher support; E learning; Adult Literacy; Child development; Happy schools) which is the main focus of Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM) in eradicating illiteracy by 2020. R I Dist 3230 Rotary Centenary Charitable Trust took the initiative of getting a E'learning Module in 2014 from Educomp Solutions and showcased to many corporates, schools and was able to obtain funds to the tune of Rs.10 lakhs. E'Learning Module is a device consists of Uniclass content box with 'Samacheer Kalvi' syllabusfrom Nursery to XII Std (with videos & Audios) with set of speakers and a projector. This will improve the quality of student's education through the use of high quality curriculum-based E-learning (audio-visual) modules in local language, to enhance knowledge absorption and learning abilities of children in selected State / State-aided schools. RCCT has successfully collected funds from TTK Group and other donors and implemented e' learning in 10 schools. This was also successfully implemented in 2015-16 in many schools which are renovated under 'Sangamitra' Project.

Rotary Clubs conduct eye check up, general check up etc in their adopted schools, to ensure these children remain healthy.