Seven members of SCAW’s travelling team under the leadership of Sandy Riches arrived in Belgaum, India late Friday, 8 February. We were met by our OVP, the Rotary Club of Belgaum International Service Projects Association who are now in their 31st year of partnering with SCAW. Under the oversight of Rotarian Dilip Chitnis, members organized the 7,000 bedkit distribution effort in the region with the help of 12 local Rotary Clubs that will take place over the next 11 days.
Today, it took three hours of driving to arrive at Athani where we were met by the very enthusiastic and welcoming 40 members belonging to the Rotary Club of Athani.
The wonderful children were patiently waiting to receive their bedkits with their parents.
Once the team was organized, all 500 bedkits were handed out over the space of about 3 ½ hours, with pictures taken, family interviews completed and the children, who came from within a radius of about 25 KM around the distribution site, going home happily and with lots of gratitude to the donors.
To add a different focus, In the background to these distributions, there is a significant amount of volunteer work required to procure the items, assemble them and hand them out to the children. In the case of the Athani Rotarians, they visited the schools, spoke with the teachers, did some home visits to determine who needed bedkits and ensured that they met the standards set by Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW).
Over the last two weeks, club members put in over 90 volunteer hours to assemble the bedkits in the selected venue, a local community recreation centre, and get everything ready for today’s distribution. And they did an outstanding job!! This was their 11th year of organizing the bedkit distribution in their area and have helped over 3,000 children have a better sleep, which can make the difference between hope and despair, as stated by our first-time travelling volunteer, Colleen Watson.
When I spoke with them, one Rotarian, Deepak Patil, mentioned that club members were so impressed with what SCAW was doing for the children and how we, as travelling volunteers from Canada, freely gave of our own time and effort, they just wanted to do their part as it takes both sides to successfully complete a distribution. And that is why he said, “You can’t clap with one hand!”
What a great first day! We came back to Belgaum 12 hours after we left it, very tired and very satisfied to see those happy children go to their homes, knowing that they will have a better sleep to face tomorrow’s challenges.
For the Children,
Joep Diening for
Team Belgaum 2019
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