Team Reports |
The Ambattur Rotary ClubAndy Greiner — Ottawa, ON
The Ambattur Club, our OVO in Chennai, is highly-organized, efficient, and flexible to adapt to any circumstance. They raise money and enlists private companies and other organizations to contribute to the costs of the SCAW distribution. They help make sure that, when you buy a $35 bedkit, 100% of your donation reaches the needy child. They have to cover costs which include renting space for assembling the bedkits, hiring six people to assemble them, travel and other costs associated with the the identification process of the children who will receive bedkits, and shipping costs.
This year’s distribution to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands required hiring two containers to ship bedkits there at a cost of IR 90,000, and paying port fees of IR 30,000 (totaling almost $CAD 3,000). Although the port fees still had to be paid, the local Rotary clubs were successful in convincing the shipping companies of the social benefits of the program so the containers were shipped free. Members spend about 8,000 hours of volunteer work on the SCAW distribution each year beginning in July. They get into high gear when the funds are received from the SCAW office late in the year. Most of the work is done between November and February and the final few weeks are treated as full time work for half a dozen club members. Members raise money in the order of 11.5 lakhs of Indian Rupees (a lakh is 100,000 units and at time of writing this, the CAN$ is worth about IR40) and of that it spends about 10% on delivering SCAW, or about CAN$3800. As well, the Club enlists private companies, and other organizations to contribute to SCAW by explaining to them the social benefits. So they are able to enlist the support of the India Tobacco Company and other Rotary Clubs and their individual members as well to contribute in kind or by cash. In addition, when they source for the items in the "slumber kit", they also approach companies that are willing to discount their prices so to provide benefit to SCAW recipients. Overall, the Club estimates that the delivery process costs around CAN$ 3 to 5 per kit, or upwards of CAN$18,000 to 30,000, a wide range of numbers that has not been verified.
This does not include the Canadian volunteers costs which are also in the $20,000 range. So it is interesting to note that the total delivery costs, including all participants, are in the range of $40,000, or 20% of the cost of the donations that resulted in 6,000 kits that we delivered in Chennai this year. For example, Ravi visited the Andaman Islands three times working with the local Rotary Clubs that assisted with the delivery of the SCAW program on the Andamans. Other financial donors such as the India Tobacco Company, funded the SCAW team's stay in Sivakasi for 2 days as well as sponsored the buses that picked up the children from various shcools to take them to the various venues where we distributed the kits.
For example, at one of our distributions the cost of the bussing was IR 55,000, or roughly CAN$1300, funded by ITC. This indicates that bussing alone for our 15 distributions costs upwards of CAN$10,000, all contributed by private Indian sponsors. At the Swami's Golden Temple, where we distributed kits, the Swami allowed the SCAW team to stay at their spiritual center, including food and accommodation and on the Andaman Islands, the accommodation and food as well, were pretty well covered by local business owners - who also happened to be Rotarians - for the SCAW team. There is a permanent committee for SCAW and a number of subcommittees that look after specific tasks. The children's identification committee travels to the target villages and talks with the schools and the parents of the targeted children and follows up with them until all the eligibility criteria have been met. Then the child receives a registration card for distribution day. The sourcing committee meets with the manufacturers of the specific bedkit items and negotiates prices each year, often changing vendors for financial benefit. The logistics committee ensures that bedkits are manufactures and transported to the appropriate venues on the exact dates when the distribution takes place and also makes sure that buses are available and on time to bring the children to the venue and then take them back with their bedkit to their villages. As well, the club secures an annual license for receiving the Canadian funds since the government has to approve foreign funds coming into the country, worried about the potential flow of terrorist funding into India. From what I saw, the partnership between the Ambattur Rotary Club and SCAW not only resulted in 6,000 children sleeping more soundly but also created many lasting friendships between Canada and India. |
