Quite symbolically, our Rotary Club of Mumbai SOBO was chartered on 22nd February, 2021, that is the day before the first ever meeting of Rotary held on February 23, 1905, and which is now designated by Rotary as the World Understanding and Peace Day. Little did we know that from just a few people during our first introductory meeting, we’ve now grown to over 115 members in a span of merely 6 months. Reflecting the contemporary mindset of our members, we’re proud to say that our club maintains a 50-50 men-women ratio! Our members consist of many entrepreneurs, including social impact start-ups, to professionals such as teachers, architects, lawyers, pilots, doctors and bankers, as well as people active in the health and sports sector, and the creative field. This wide spectrum of interests combined with the fact that most of our members are in their 30’s and 40’s, translates into a unique dynamism and camaraderie in our club. Given the expertise of many of our members in the educational field, we were able to set up 9 Interact Clubs and 2 Rotaract Clubs in record time, encouraging the youth to kindle the spirit of service in their early years!
Rotary SOBO was set up during the COVID pandemic, many of our first projects have focused on offering specific relief to people most affected by it, whether it’s in terms of hot meal distributions, or family ration kits, providing fruits to orphanages, building homes in villages, to sourcing oxygen concentrators for hospitals most in need. We also organize vaccination drives and blood camps on a regular basis. Education, addressing hunger, support to the differently abled and women empowerment will remain key focus areas for our club as we move forward.
Our belief is Service translates through Fellowship and Bonding, hence a spectrum of interest groups such as Book, Wine, Golf, Health and Trekking clubs have become an integral part of our association. Motivating Speaker meets are another area of enhancing and sharpening our knowledge base.