Sunday 18 January 2015

Pune: Day 4!

A 125 km ride along winding, climbing roads brought us to the site of the third distribution, Mahabaleshwar.  Local villagers gathered on balconies and along the roadway to be part of their first visit by the SCAW-Rotary team.  Climbing to an elevation of 4000 ft., all team members appreciated our skillful driver.  Terraced farming became quite evident. Many of today’s bedkit recipients’ families survive on the crops grown on these small tracts of land.  Schools are scattered throughout this rural district.




Travelling as far away as 40 kms to receive their kit was a big event.  Families arrived by truck in groups of approximately 10.  Emotions of joy and trepidation showed on the faces of both child and parent. 


Included in the 800 students today were 20 children from the P.C. Alwani School for the Mentally Challenged, named after its founder. Daily school bus transportation is provided for these “specially- abled” children, whose challenges were both and physical and developmental.

The reward in distributing the kits is not in the flowers presented to us but the sincerity of the practiced “thank-you” and the firmness of the handshake from adult and child.



Team Pune 2015