Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

“You can­not con­tin­ue to suc­ceed in the world or have a ful­fill­ing life, un­less you choose to use your life in the ser­vice some­how to oth­ers . . . That’s how you nur­ture it.”

~Oprah Win­frey

This quote apt­ly de­scribes our fel­low Ro­tar­i­ans; per­sons from all walks of life, com­mit­ted to serv­ing wor­thy ini­tia­tives, work­ing to­geth­er as a team, ful­fill­ing a life in the ser­vice to oth­ers.

First all-fe­male Ro­tary Club char­tered by Do­lores Jar­dine

Thir­ty years ago, the Ro­tary Club of Mar­aval was char­tered by Ro­tary In­ter­na­tion­al on May 4, 1993, led by Mrs Do­lores Jar­dine, Pres­i­dent of the first all-fe­male Ro­tary club in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

A reg­is­tered nurse, born and raised in Cana­da, Do­lores moved to Trinidad in 1984 and mar­ried a Trinida­di­an. She vol­un­teered as a read­er at the School for the Blind in San­ta Cruz and vol­un­teered at Fam­i­lies in Ac­tion, a treat­ment fa­cil­i­ty for drug ad­dicts be­fore join­ing Ro­tary.

“Ro­tary gave per­sons an av­enue to meet like-mind­ed in­di­vid­u­als with an in­ter­est in ser­vice to oth­ers,” Jar­dine shared.

Now liv­ing back in Cana­da and en­joy­ing her re­tire­ment with her fam­i­ly, she said mem­o­ries of her years in Trinidad bring her much en­joy­ment, es­pe­cial­ly the many com­mu­ni­ty build­ing projects and ini­tia­tives led by Ro­tary.

Over the past 30 years, the Club has ex­tend­ed its mem­ber­ship, with the in­clu­sion of male mem­bers, all aligned to the com­mon goal of ser­vice to oth­ers.

Yeo­man ser­vice and com­mit­ment

The Ro­tary Club of Mar­aval (RCOM) is known for its ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to the Mar­aval and Ram­panal­gas com­mu­ni­ties, de­vel­op­ing sev­er­al pro­grammes main­ly in the pri­ma­ry schools. These in­clud­ed pro­vid­ing school sup­plies, in­sti­tut­ing a crick­et ini­tia­tive among the pri­ma­ry schools, up­grad­ing school li­braries with new fur­ni­ture and new books with lo­cal con­tent, and pre­sent­ing stu­dents with tablets and lap­tops dur­ing the chal­leng­ing times of COVID.

The Club al­so pro­vid­ed yeo­man ser­vice to the Ser­vol Life Cen­tre lo­cat­ed in St Anns, the St An­drew’s Home for the Aged and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Pris­ons Ser­vice.

His­toric mo­ment re­liv­ed

On the Club’s fifth an­niver­sary in 1998 a lun­cheon was held at the Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre where along with the then May­or of Port of Spain, Al­der­man John Ra­hael and the then British High Com­mis­sion­er, His Ex­cel­len­cy Gre­go­ry Faulkn­er, a cap­sule com­mem­o­rat­ing the Club’s mem­o­rable mo­ments was buried. It was de­cid­ed that the cap­sule would be re­trieved 25 years lat­er.

Fast for­ward to 2023, the Club re­cent­ly host­ed a func­tion at the same Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre where the cap­sule was re­trieved in ac­cor­dance with the plan of 25 years ago. It was in­deed a his­toric mo­ment when the re­trieval was done by the cur­rent Pres­i­dent of the Club, Kir­win Samuel ably as­sist­ed by Deb­bie Roopc­hand, the in­com­ing Dis­trict Gov­er­nor for Dis­trict 7030. The at­ten­dees in­clud­ed re­spect­ed dig­ni­taries, 11 past pres­i­dents of the Club, past and cur­rent Ro­tar­i­ans of RCOM and their sis­ter Clubs. 

All at­ten­dees were ea­ger to ex­plore the con­tents of this cap­sule. That they did, as they rem­i­nisced on the his­to­ry of the Club, the many ac­tiv­i­ties and suc­cess­ful col­lab­o­ra­tive events held by the club and char­tered the way for­ward.

Cre­ate Hope in the World

The 2023-24 pres­i­den­tial theme, Cre­ate Hope in the World, gives mem­bers the op­por­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote peace, help those af­fect­ed by con­flict, and main­tain the mo­men­tum of ini­tia­tives be­gun by past lead­ers.

Ro­tary In­ter­na­tion­al Pres­i­dent-elect Gor­don R. McI­nal­ly, at the launch of the 2023-2024 Pres­i­den­tial theme, called for mem­bers to cap­ture the world’s at­ten­tion and lead the way to­ward pos­si­bil­i­ties far be­yond our cur­rent ex­pec­ta­tions.

“The goal is to re­store hope — to help the world heal from de­struc­tive con­flicts and, in turn, to help us achieve last­ing change for our­selves,” McI­nal­ly said at Ro­tary’s an­nu­al train­ing event for in­com­ing dis­trict gov­er­nors.

Who is a Ro­tar­i­an?

• A Ro­tar­i­an is a per­son who digs wells from which they will nev­er drink.

• A per­son who vac­ci­nates chil­dren they will nev­er meet.

• Who re­stores sight for those they will nev­er see.

• Who builds hous­es they will nev­er live in.

• Who ed­u­cates chil­dren they will nev­er know.

• Who plants trees they will nev­er sit un­der.

• Who feeds hun­gry peo­ple, re­gard­less of race, re­li­gion or pol­i­tics.

• Who knows re­al hap­pi­ness, by serv­ing oth­ers.

[shared from https://my.ro­tary.org/

en/guid­ing-prin­ci­ples]

To get in con­tact with Ro­tary Club of Mar­aval:

https://www.ro­tary­mar­aval.org/ Face­book : https://www.face­book.com/Ro­taryClubOf­Mar­aval­Trinidadand­To­ba­go

Email : ro­tary­mar­aval@gmail.com