Beyond Boundaries

Rotary club of Pune Shivajinagar is known and appreciated for its mega projects like Industrial Fairs and District Enkankika.  Through constant innovation, we are consistently delivering and doing good for the society.

Having said this, there are many clubs within our district and beyond who are successfully running some flagship projects.

Through “Beyond Boundaries” we would like to bring glimpses of such projects which will be an inspiration and motivation for us in the coming years!!

PP Praful Dhargalkar (Trustee RCNP Charitable Trust) :-

We thank you for your interest in our club’s signature project running for the past 25 years. Since charter, we have taken an active part in Rotary International’s thrust area of Polio Immunisation which we are proud to have contributed to the eradication of Polio in India. Initially having no premises of our own we immunised local children in rented rooms from CIDCO Health Centre in its New Panvel node.

Since there was an acute shortage in the availability of blood to treat critical patients in Panvel hospitals, our club members set out to set up a blood bank and with the benevolence of club member Dr Arvind Limaye an 1180 sq mtr plot was acquired on the strategic Mumbai Pune highway from CIDCO. After a series of fundraisers and donations from local business houses and Rotary members and matching grants from the Rotary Club of Ake Nigeria, the RCNP within ten years of its existence threw open Rotary Blood Bank doors to serve not only the local population but for entire Raigad District. The Blood Bank then went on to add a Blood Component Mfg Lab for providing Blood Plasma and Plates which helped immensely during malaria and dengue outbreaks. Meanwhile a Single Donor Platelet – Apheresis unit too was added with the help of the Rotary Club of South Korea. With this, a single donor as against 15 donors can fulfil the requirement of platelets for transfusing to a needy patient. RCNP has been donating blood free of cost to underprivileged children suffering from Thalasssemia. Over the years 70 children have been adopted to receive blood regularly.

Not resting on its laurels RC New Panvel in 2013-14 aimed at three global grants to set up a Mega Medical Centre wherein our services could be taken to the next level. Early in 2020 our new facilities for Blood Banking & Thalassemia care, Apheresis Centre, Haemo Dialysis Centre, a Day Care Centre and a Community Centre were ready. With the outbreak of the COVID19 Pandemic, we could open the Community Centre and the health facilities were used for collaborative vaccination exercises with the Panvel Municipal Corporation.

Our Mega Medical Centre was officially inaugurated at the hands of the Immediate Past Rotary International President in August 2021 which was streamed live on our club’s YouTube Channel – YouTube.com/rotarymegamedicalcentre

Blood Banking
Although having an annual track record of approximately 5000 units of blood being issued, less surgeries taking place during the troubled times of the pandemic we still have consistently issued blood units to the needy. Blood is issued at FDA regulated prices which barely covers our cost of reagents used for various mandatory tests each unit goes through before it can be safely issued.

Thalassemia Philantrophy
We have doubled our list of beneficaries for Thalassemia afficated children who regularly receive whole blood toatally Free-of-Cost every week as our Philantropy exercise.

Haemo – Dialysis Centre
Our dialysis procedures are handled by most experienced service providers in the field who run centres other trusts in Panvel. Although the private players charge anything between Rs 1600 – 1800 we charge only Rs 1100.

COVID19 Vaccnations
As Rotary in India has earned laurels in Polio Vaccinations since the early eighties, RCNP were the first prefered partnership that the local District administration entertained to extend its own Vaccination Drive. Our members invested their time and resources to augment the PMC’s totally Free-of-Cost vaccination while we incur expenses on account of our facilities and power costs. In the month of May 2020 since we started 12000+ accinations were carried out in our centre.

Day Care & Poly Clinic
Our second floor houses our Day Care and Poly Clinic equipped with a Minor OT for simple surgical procedures requiring day stay. Multi – faculty Specialists are invited from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in the Poly Clinic for consultations for the benefit of rural population. All in all we are proud to carry on our Service to Community.
PP Praful Dhargalkar Trustee RCNP Charitable Trust