Only attitude matters on the quality of what we give not the amount.
Most psychologists say that life cannot be lived online. Exacerbating mental health issues and converting a home into a stressful environment are the prominent factors towards their opinions. Somehow RACFOSUOC adapted well to the online system and did many successful virtual projects, although we really missed doing physical projects where we collected plenty of memories. Those projects were the stepping stones of doing community services and being a rotaractor.
While the world is trying to be back on track with the help of several vaccines, we also scheduled to resume physical projects under some restrictions by breaking the monotony. Then, we were lucky enough to do the project “ANNAPURNA” after a while by commemorating world Rotaract week.
The meaning of the project name has to be revealed first to break your confusion. “Annapurna” is a word derived from Sanskrit meaning` which stands for the giver of food and nourishment. So, the project was steered to distribute lunch packets among street cleaners.
A clean environment leads to create love towards our motherland, calmness in our stressful mindsets and it helps to develop the tourism industry as well. Imagine the importance of having a neat place to live and breathe. A bunch of hearts who clean streets, pavements, and gutters are directly engaged to rise up their motherland to a pleasant place. Even they get paid less, their jobs are priceless. They might not own a higher salary than beggars but they do not beg, they provide their manpower up to the highest level even under any weather circumstance.
RACFOSUOC thought to be the breeze to those dried faces.
It was Sunday. We all gathered at the “Gangaramaya” temple at around 11.30 a.m. and started to distribute lunch packets among street cleaners close by. We asked them about some usual places their friends normally get to rest. With the help of their instructions, we distributed hundred lunch packets after attempting just one tour of Colombo. No one refused to take a packet by saying they already brought one from the home. I silently thought that typically lunch was not in their meals. Most of them were not even using slippers. How do they work on roads at noon? How do they survive without burning? Some security officers, beggars, and three-wheel drivers also asked for some lunch packets when we were carrying them here and there. We gave them too because no one implores a lunch packet if they have had it already or if they are capable of earning their own lunch.
We never took any single photo of them to even publish them as blurred photographs. Because asking them to pose for a photo while they were receiving a lunch packet would create hard feelings on them.
As in every Rotaract community service project, “Annapurna” also taught me to value myself and to help others at every possible time.
By Rtr. Anujitha Kahaduwa
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