With Your Help We Can Save Children from Freezing Cold!

As the winter sets in, in a few weeks from now, in Leh and Ladakh, the families rendered homeless in the flash floods in early August, are already shuddering in their make shift tents. With no houses to live in, and no time to build a new house, only hope lies in the prefab houses which we, in Rotary, decided to provide to some of the families in Leh, after our visit there.
There are 13 prefab houses in two villages, and one dormitory which would house nearly 23 families, protecting them from the harsh cold, which touches -40 degrees.
Each prefab house structure of 12ft x 14ft has been very kindly offered to be fabricated by a manufacturer at the highly reasonable cost of just Rs.1.50 lakh. Many generous Rotarians have come forward with financial support. It's time to hurry since it is only a few weeks left now when these shelters must reach there and get installed.
Support us. With your help, we can save little children, women, the infirm and the aged, from the freezing cold.
Send in your contributions to "Chandigarh Rotary Club Service Trust" immediately.

Interact Video Contest

Hey, Interactors! Here's your chance to be famous. We're holding our second annual Interact video contest. So grab a camera, make a short video telling us how you Interact, and submit it by 1 December. The grand-prize winner will be featured on www.rotary.org.

Check out the video and more details.

Leh Needs You

This was the most humbling experience for the three of us, past president Rtn Arvind Mehan and Rotary Club of Chandigarh's club secretary Rtn Hassan Singh Mejie, and I to be in Leh with the relief material so generously collected by the Rotarians of our District 3080.
Having been loaded personally by the Rotarians including Past Rotary International President Raja Saboo, Rotary International Director Elect Yash Das, District Governor Madhukar Malhotra, and Presidents of tricity, on Sunday the 5th September, the material was airlifted to Leh, thanks to the AOC Air Cmdr Rajeev Sachdeva in Chandigarh, and AOC Air Cmdr Anil Tewari in Leh.
We were there on Monday morning, the 6th September, to receive it at the IAF base, and were fortunate to have the complete support of 1-Vikas Unit headed by Commanding Officer Col Tikka Yuvraj Singh Bedi, the newphew of our PDG Kawal Bedi, at whose insistence, he had made elaborate arrangements to make our relief operation a great success.
We were able to travel to nearly 150 kms away from Leh towards the Batalic border near Kargil, and provide relief to several villages that were badly affected and had not received much relief so far, because of the distance.
The situation is grim. Even after one month of the tragedy of torrential rain and mud-slides which washed away families and homes of numerous people, rendering many children orphans, the local residents are still trying to put their lives together, living in make-shift accommodations and tents.
Now the winter is just few weeks away when the temperature goes down as low as -40 degrees. It is difficult for these families to survive. The Deputy Commissioner has requested for 13 prefabricated shelters of 12ft x 14ft size and one barrack of 24ft x 60ft size. On exploring with various fabricators, one of them in Baddi had been very generous to provide the same at no-profit basis, and the total cost comes to about Rs.25 lakh.
The people of Leh are looking towards Rotary with great hope and expectant eyes. They are waiting for these temporary shelters which can help them save their families from winter. Our appeal is to come forward and send in your contributions to "Chandigarh Rotary Club Service Trust". We have just few weeks to go to take these shelters in Leh-Ladakh area, and save these precious lives.
Act now.