A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROTARY CHAPRA Club ID 16010.
Some very high profile social workers from Chapra experienced the miseries of the economically, physically and educationally handicapped people of Chapra. The social services of these members were recognised by The Rotary Club of Muzaffarpur, Who became sponsors to our Club. The first formal meeting of the Provisional Club was held on 9th of October 1973 at the residence and under the President ship of the well-known Physician Rtn Dr S. Mukund, they took a vow to do something for the welfare of the ailing humanity. This meeting of 23 members became the seed sown at Chapra for the germination of the big tree now known as the Rotary Club of Chapra. The members of this meeting are the Charter members.
The Charter ID 16010 was granted by the Rotary International on the auspicious day of 23rd Jan 1974. Rtn Dr. S.B.Palit, from Rotary Club of Berhampur, Orissa, the then District Governor of our Rotary District 325 (comprising the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and some parts of M.P.), presented the Charter ID 16010 of our club to the Charter President late Rtn. Ratneshwar Nath Sahay and Charter Secretary Rtn Dr S. Mukund. Later this was known as RI Distt. 325 and now the Rotary Clubs of Bihar and Jharkhand comprise the RI Distt.3250. This is in short, how the Rotary Club of Chapra came into existence. We have been celebrating our Charter Day as the B’day of Rotary Club of Chapra and today also it is a celebrating time for all of us.
Eradication of Polio has been at the highest priority of our activities and therefore, since inception, we have been helping the society in every way towards the eradication of Polio through our Polio plus projects. It is quite heartening to note that now we are living in a Polio free India.
We have been organising various health projects for the benefit of general public and especially for senior citizens. We adopted villages, got the health checked-up of the needy and distributed medicines among them.
We have been helping the needy through our Intra Ocular lens transplant projects every year. This way, on an average, benefiting two to three hundred people every year.
So far as our literacy projects are concerned, to name some, from time to time, we have been providing reading materials to the students from slum areas. Have provided Brail Books to the blind students of “SEVA SADAN”, a school for blind students.
In recognition to our commitment towards vocational work, the Rotary Club of Graham and RC of Alamance Breakfast, USA, provided us a matching grant for the establishment of a Rotary Saheli Centre in the year 2006. We have been conducting vocational projects (e.g. doll making, beautician, jewellery making, stitching etc.) at this centre for extremely poor ladies/girls, thus enabling them to become self dependent and in some cases to become bread earners for their family.
We have been able to infuse dedication towards the service to the society into the persons who came in our contact, thus helping in the formation of new Rotary Clubs, such as:
1. Rotary Club of Siwan, Siwan.- inaugurated in the year 1998, through our clubs dynamic leadership under Rtn Rakesh Gupta and Rtn. Dr. HK Verama, and others.
2. Rotary Club of Gopalganj, Gopalganj.- inaugurated in the year 2001, , through our clubs dynamic leadership under Rtn Rakesh Prasad, Rtn AK Agrawal and others.
3. Saran Rotary, Chapra. – inaugurated in the year 2005, through our clubs dynamic leadership under Rtn Dr. Rakesh Prasad, Rtn. Prafulla Srivastva and others.
4. Rotary Club of Hajipur, Hajipur - inaugurated in the year 2008 , through our clubs dynamic leadership under Rtn Pramod Ranjan Sinha, Rtn Poonam Singh and others.
It is not out of place to mention here that our clubs activities have been catching the eyes of the members of other Rotary Clubs of the District 3250, our leaders have been able to instil faith in the mind and soul of the members of these clubs, with the effect that we are proud to say that our club has given the Rotary District a “District Governor” in the name of Rtn Dr. Rakesh Prasad, the DGE. Like wise, many of our members have been serving district team to achieve district goal.