ROTARY CLUB WALTAIR
Now a days with immense stress on membership growth and external extension, there is a great impetus for forming new Rotary Clubs. But 52 years ago, the Rotary Club of Visakhapatnam, which was chartered in 1942, debated for a time whether it should code its territory to form another club. Thus, the creation of our Club met with considerable opposition in the parent club and thanks to the perseverance of members like the then PDG Hanumantha Rao. PP G.S.K. Arya, PP. Prof B Ramachandra Rao, etc. the objections were overruled, and the Rotary Club of Visakhapatnam North came into existence. The territory of our Club was defined as follows:
“Municipal limits of Visakhapatnam excluding the area which is to the north battery, proceeding unto the T-junction near the Watch House and K.R & Sons petrol station, four-road junction near Siripuram junction opposite to Virginia House, Asilmetta, road junction leading to Malkonda, New Colony, junction with Araku Trunk road junction with the new national highway at the airport, and the road junction at gopalapatnam terminating at the old airport road which is the municipal limit”.
Governor Sqd. Leader Jamshediji D. Italia from Hyderadabad presented the charter of the Rotary Club of Visakhapatnam North on the 22nd August 1972. Incidentally it was also the Governor’s birthday.
The formative years are the most important, even in the life of an organization. When a group of persons totally new to Rotary sit down to work, they need guidance and encouragement in the initial years to canalize their resources in the proper direction. Fortunately for us, our parent club performed this role admirably well.
Once it was chartered, the Rotary Club of Visakhapatnam took extremely good care of our club. PDG Hanu was Counselor for our Club for three years, and he used to attend our Board Meetings regularly. And the first venue of our meetings was the Pithapuram building in the Andhra University.
The Club was subsequently renamed as Rotary Club of Waltair. The following are the charter Members of Rotary Club of Waltair Charter President : Rtn C.V. Subramanyam Charter Secretary: Rtn PDG G. Jaya Rao : Rtn R.P. Chitra : Rtn M. Chittaranjan : Rtn Dr. V Eswar Reddy : Rtn P.K. Gupta : Rtn A.H Venkata Nagabhushana Rao : Rtn M.M Hussain : Rtn G Jaya Rao : Rtn K.L. Narasimha Rao : Rtn V. Prahlad : Rtn A Radhakrishna : Rtn. B Raghupati Rao : Rtn. T.S. Rajeswaran : Rtn. P. Ramchand : Rtn P.C. Ranga Raju : Rtn. M Ranganayakulu : Rtn. Dr P Sitaramaswamy : Rtn. K. Srirama Murthy : Rtn. Dr B.V. Subba Rao : Rtn C.V. Subrahmanyam : Rtn. D. varada Reddy : Rtn. B Yerram Raju
The Club has got the honors of making two District Governors 1 Rtn. PDG G. Jaya Rao 2 Rtn. PDG D. Varada Reddy
The Club has a glorious 48 years of experience in Service Activities. The Club has a permanent project “VISION AID” where free computer education is provided to blind and vision impaired persons. The Project is located on the 1st floor of Dr. L. Bullaiah College and a Resource Training Centre at Ba-Bapu Bhawan in Dwaraka Nagar. It has imparted education to several blind and vision impaired persons over the past 15 years.
In addition to the above permanent project, the club has under taken Several Projects.
To name a few are:
1. Participation in Polio Eradication Campaign and N.I.Days.
2. Cataract Eye Surgeries.
3. Family Planning Operation (During early years of the Club)
4. Donation of Cancer Detection Equipment of worth Rs. 40 lacs to a local Hospital
5. Donation of Mobile Bus of 28-seater
6. Horticultural Shows
7. PET and Dog Shows
8. Tree Plantation Drives
9. Adoption of Musalayya Palem Village and undertaken many activities in the village.
10. Child Health Care Camps
11. Cyclone Shelters
12. Adult Literacy Campaign
13. Substantial Contributions The Rotary Foundation
14. Various New Generation programs for youth and students
15. Cancer Hospice (for Five years)
16. Adoption of Chinna Waltair Municipal Elementary School and provided practically everything for a period of years.
17. During Lock Down in 2020 year, Food and other essential items provided on a day to day basis for almost 45 days to the needy poor persons and stranded migrant working.
18. Blood Donation Camps. In 2020 year the Club collected more than 1200 units of blood
19. The club has two active Rotaract Clubs and an Intract Club.
20. VISION AID our permanent project – Free Computer education to Blind and Vision impaired persons.
21. ICHA foundation: Build 1000sft cottage worth rupees 1400000 for cerebal palsy children
22. Conducted Rotary leadership institute 1 and 2 { year 24-25)