Rotaract Life Changing IMPACT
When most people hear the name Rotaract, the terms money, prestige, and wealth are not usually too far from their thoughts. I have personally fallen victim of the blissful ignorance associated with people who judge before they can think long enough to carry out a little research. I joined the Rotaract club of Embu early this year, simply out of curiosity and with no intention of attending more than one fellowship.
The first time I attended a rotaract meeting (they are called fellowships), I remember the 500 shillings that was burning holes in my jeans, waiting for the opportune moment to show that even a hustler like me could be associated with the other half. As I expectantly waited for the ”githaa ya kutoa pesa” , imagine my surprise when instead of notes there were coins of tens and twenties, and instead of resolute and professionally charged conversations, there was joy and smiles. It was also the first time I actually laughed in a long while. Turns out I never left, and if I look forward to weekly meetings on Thursdays, well let’s say my curiosity was more than satiated.
Today, I am a proud Rotaractor, having been inducted not long ago and with no intention of leaving anytime soon. On my first ever community service in Rotaract, I got a taste of what the club is really about: Service above self, while at the same time having fun through joyous team building activities.
On Saturday, the 3rd of August, the club was donating a wheelchair to a fifty year old man in Muranga county. Before he was confined to the wheel chair, Mzee Eliud lived a blissfully average life in Muranga, and later moved to work in Kakamega where his children were born. He stayed there up until the circumstances of the 2008 post-election violence forced him to move back home. Not long after, he started experiencing substantial pain in his knee joints. Like the average Kenyan, he would take occasional painkillers to wish the pain away, only for the affliction to not only worsen, but hinder physical movement.
He began his weekly trips to and from Kenyatta hospital in Nairobi, where it was already too late before his inability to ever walk again was discovered. Consequently, each weekly hospital appointment would cost him Kes. 12, 000, only when his legs finally failed did he tardily realize he had no money left for any form of corrective surgery, and sadly, could not afford to purchase a wheelchair, which is expensive.
I had never fully reflected on the phrase service beyond self until I saw how Mzee Eliud’s smile lit when we donated the wheelchair. He had been disabled for years, and his reliance on a borrowed wheelchair lent to him two months prior to our visit notwithstanding, one could easily see the great impact the chair had on him. As the sole family breadwinner, it must have been tasking to provide for them. The wheelchair, while not a treatment, is a symbol of hope which not only facilities effective movement, but gives back some semblance of control.
Mzee Eliud is one of the many wheelchair beneficiaries courtesy of the RCE community over the last two years. Many wheelchairs have been donated in Embu, Kirinyaga, Nakuru, Nyeri, Muranga and beyond. While some may wonder why the club would go out of its way to serve in places outside of Embu, one outstanding thing about Rotaract is its universality. We aim to serve people in all regions regardless of where, what, and who they are. If we have to cross Kenyan borders to put a smile on someone’s face, together we will find a way. Currently, led by the outspoken and committed president Njoroge Njuguna, the wheelchair project is just one of the many community service milestones of the club for next year.
While the wheelchair business was the highlight of the day, visiting the famous Ndakaini dam was the perfect way to conclude the event. We laughed and laughed some more, revisited the good old days of one two…make a circle… and ukuti! ukuti! and had an amazing photo session with Njoro’s broken smartphone that can surprisingly take beautiful pictures.
There are many more upcoming activities for the Rotaract club in the next few months including raising Polio awareness, tree planting, and more importantly, the Adopt A Child Initiative aimed at buying school uniforms for struggling pupils in public schools, starting with Njukiri Primary. Using the following link to the M-changa account, contributions bring us closer to our goal of facilitating a brighter education to these kids. https://changa.page.link/5cmnr
There are many things to learn in Rotaract, and I’m here for the long haul. I may never grasp it all, or even understand why we call them fellowships instead of meetings, but I know I have a second family in the club. And family means being there for each other through the bad and the good. If you’re looking for professional development, serving the community, making friends, having a good laugh or like me, you are just curious about the fuss that is Rotaract, well…come find us.
By Mergery Nyakio – Rotaract Club of Embu
