By Eunice Wanjira
Our 2021-2022 Rotary year began with receiving 3,500 USD grant funded by Rotary International District 9212 and United Nations Environmental program for a project dubbed "adopt a river" and we adopted seasonal River Maraigushu. Notably, we were the first Rotaract Club to receive a District Grant in our district. The project was handled in three phases; Community training on environmental conservation, river clean up and tree planting where we planted 650 trees contributing to DG Alex Nyaga's a million trees legacy project. Throughout the lifecycle of the project we brought together 250 volunteers from various youth groups in Naivasha.
Our club is known for: free annual medical camps where we take healthcare services to communities that do not have access to healthcare services. This year we are doing our 10th medical camp on Saturday, 7th May 2022 at Eburru Village.
We also hold Annual Afternoon Tea Cup Caring Up Professionally (AT-CUP) , a youth empowerment seminar which aims at empowering youth with knowledge and inspiration in life. In the past 6 years we have reached over 1000 youths. Proceeds from ATCUP usually go to help vulnerable and underprivileged women in our community.Our other Annual project is chapati bonanza in both maximum and minimum prisons in Naivasha, a funday event geared to giving hope to inmates.
Covid 19 pandemic posed major social challenges which made us as a club to think out of the box to offer solutions. The provision of food in informal settlements was one of the major challenges in Naivasha. As a club we partnered with other community groups and started a feeding program for children and by the end of 2020 we had been able to feed 10, 000 children.
Teen pregnancy and drug abuse was also a national challenge. We came up with AT-CUP mashinani to reachout and mentor teenagers. During the event we distribute dignity kits with girls receiving an annual supply of pads, 4 panties, soap and masks while boys receive 3 pairs of boxers, soap and masks. In the last two consecutive years we have been able to reach 800 teenagers with one event hosted in Murang'a county in partnership with several Rotaract clubs from the Mt Kenya region.
In between this annual project we do Orphans and Vulnerable Children visits and tree planting activities in public and private spaces.
