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MEMBERS of the Rotary Club of Salmaniya are busy finalising preparations for the kingdom's annual raft race which takes place on April 9 at the Al Bander Hotel and Resort.
The raft race attracts many Bahrain-based organisations to participate in an adrenaline-fuelled competition that has become one of the biggest charity events on the island raising more that BD2 million since it started in 1979.
Peter Makepeace, the club's community service director, said: "Over the years we have utilised our funds to help the less fortunate on the island and the common thread that runs through our projects, past and present, is to lend a helping hand to children and young people."
Apart from injecting money into various worthy projects, The Rotary Club of Salmaniya has, over the years, focused its charitable efforts on Isa Town Rehabilitation Centre as one of its primary causes for support.
The centre caters to special needs children and young adults and along with providing them with care and education also arms them with skills that help them to become self-reliant.
Bahraini Faten Kamal, the centre's director, said: "I started working as a special needs teacher at the centre in 1980 and over the years, The Rotary Club of Salmaniya has developed and implemented a vocational training programme for young adults.
"They provided us with the equipment and workshops that have helped to harness our students' interest and make them self-reliant. This is an excellent programme that originated with the help of the organisation and many individuals who have passed through our centre have reaped benefits from it."
At present there are 350 students at the centre. Carpentry, iron working and auto-mechanics are some of the skills that are taught. Classrooms for deaf children, a multi-sports hall, playing field, a shop selling goods made by the students are some of the areas where the Rotarians have injected necessary funds collected from events such as the raft race.
Rodolphe Melki, pictured above, newly-elected president of The Rotary Club of Salmaniya, said: "We buy benches and shades from the workshops we sponsor at the Isa Town Rehabilitation Centre and donate them to various schools around the island, in effect generating an income for the same centre that we support with our charity, making it a sustainable programme."
The Rotary Club of Salmaniya has supported countless other projects, for example, by making donations for musical instruments to the Hope Institute, Braille typewriters for the Al Noor Institute, village help schemes including clean-ups and painting, the Nabih Saleh Clubhouse construction, Adhari Park children's road safety project, the Alia Autism Centre at Sitra as an ongoing cause, Friendship Society for the Blind, Bahrain Mobility as well as children's hearing tests and aids.
The Rotary club has also undertaken a number of projects in association with Salmaniya Medical Complex including blood centrifuge for the Blood Bank and the paediatric day care facility for children with blood disorders. It has partnered with Ministry of Health and supported a programme to ensure young girls were immunised against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
Mr Makepeace said: "Ultimately Rotary is an organisation of volunteers dedicated to helping society in Bahrain with particular emphasis on youngsters and those that are in need of special assistance. That does not mean that we haven't helped other citizens here over the last 39 years since the organisation's inception. Donations to the elderly have also been a strong cause that we have supported over the years in terms of special equipment and wheelchairs to the aged in Muharraq hospital and further support to the psychiatric hospital in Manama with the provision of a motor car."
