Rotary Club of Chandigarh organized a program named ‘Hands That Heal’ at Aroma Hotel, Sector-22 Chandigarh to honour the doctors and volunteers who have been a part of International Medical Missions of Rotary Club and have served humanity beyond borders, since August 1998.
The President, Rotary Club, Sh. Jatinder Kapoor welcomed the chief guest, Sh. Rajeev Verma, Adviser to Administrator UT Chandigarh and led for the lamp lighting ceremony.
In his speech, the Adviser expressed gratitude towards the doctors and volunteers for their selfless service who continue to carry forwards their mission to serve the humanity beyond borders.
He said that doctors serve the patients with empathy and compassion. The patients may forget your names but will never forget how you made them feel.
He congratulated the medicos
of Rotary Club who have initiated and taken up many projects like free surgeries and free distribution of medicines in Chandigarh and abroad.
The chief guest added that another remarkable initiative coming up is the Heath education centre which is being set up by Rotary Club in the partnership with the UT Education Department to impart good quaity health education to at least 50,000 students every year. He gave compliments to the Rotary Club Chandigarh for such a deeply committed humanitarian service.
During the event, a short film on Medical Mission of Rotary Club was also shown. Conceived by former World President of Rotary International (1991-92), Sh. Rajendra K. Saboo along with Smt. Usha Saboo, began the project with first medical mission to Uganda in 1998.
Sh. Saboo informed that the medical missions to African countries started in 1998 and later in 2006, the project was commenced in India too to serve the underprivileged people living in remote parts of the country where either the medical services were not available or were not sufficient to serve the large number of diseased patients.
During the past years, Medical Missions have been carried out in African counties including Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Cambodia, Swaziland, Zimbawe, Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Rotarian teams of doctors and volunteers have also served in various remote parts of the country including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha.
The next mission is scheduled to leave for Ethiopia on 11th August, 2024. It will be a team of 18 medicos led by PDG Mahukar Malhotra.
The chief guest showed gratitude to the team of Doctors and Volunteers who are part of next mission in Ethiopia for their spirit of voluntary service. He wished the team members all success in their mission and said that nothing can match their humanitarian contribution to society.
The Rotarians along with the Adviser to Administrator UT, also celebrated the 90th birthday of Sh. R.K. Saboo.
Among others, Dr. Suman Singh, Director Health, UT Chandigarh and Sh. R.K. Saboo, Dr. SPS Grewal, Dr. R.S. Parmar were also present on the occasion.
