More than 1.2 million professionals, community leaders, and businesspersons are part of the Rotary. Members of Rotary, known as Rotarians, provide social reforms by humanitarian welfare, promote high ethical criterion in all walks of life most specifically helping in building peace in the world. In more than 200 countries there are 33,000 Rotary clubs which are neither political nor religious and open to every individual without any restriction of race, culture or creed.
Service is the main objective of Rotary and to make it even stronger, district and international structure is designed to support the clubs so that they may serve the community nationally and internationally.Composition of members and building clubs promotes equal participation of both male and female, and all the Rotarians treat each other with due respect which builds unity among them as it is said, “If you want to move fast, go alone BUT if you want to move far, go together.” Rotary clubs are not just reserved to community service and social welfare but they also enhance the skills and qualities of an individual that help him/her in social and professional life.
The Rotary acts like a ‘leadership hub’ that trains its members by giving them a position of president, vice president, general secretary. Groomed leaders can easily be found in the organization. Not the leadership only, Rotary is also a networking hub which helps you communicate and strengthen your personal relations being solely based on professionals be they lawyers, doctors, engineers, social scientists or business personnel. A Rotary scholar Aslam Faqeer who availed a Rotary Funded Project and joined Marco Faggella’s program, aimed at training engineers around the world on ‘how to make buildings safer in earthquakes’ supervised over 120 master’s students and practicing engineers in Pakistan.
He had received a scholarship and studied at Italy and, on his return joined as Assistant Professor and supervised this program. His research focuses on how structures will perform if they are made according to the International Standards.
In this conference of Rotary International, one of the speakers, Heera Lal Bhawani shared his perspective about how engineers joining Rotary can help them learn management and leadership skills to carry out their projects and utilize team spirit for serving society and polishing your abilities in many ways.
Personal development and growth
Getting involved in Rotary you get to explore yourself, your skills, strengths and weakness and on the basis of that one can polish what they are lagging behind in.
Leadership Skills
Providing designated positions as President, Vice president Rotary helps you influence and motivate other members who can be future leaders and coached leaders
Better Citizenship in the community
It consists of responsible, active citizens with the zeal to serve the community and for that reason, it promotes better citizenship
Public Speaking Skills
Communicating with the people and being part of debates on public issues helps you enhance your speaking abilities on different issues helping you in your professional life and also in sharing your ideas clearly and smoothly.
World Citizenship
Wherever you go around the globe if you are part of Rotary and wearing ”Rotary International” pin, you are more than welcome to join any of the clubs around the globe. This is how you will make friends wherever you go no matter how known or unknown the place is to you, you will still feel at home.
Traveling Assistance
While traveling if, in need of assistance of any sort such as hotel, doctor, lawyer, and advice one will get proper assistance through the local Rotarians.
Being an engineer having just a technical knowledge would not be that fruitful but also it requires different skills which are mandatory to succeed in social and professional life. This will not only help to serve the community but also carry out engineering tasks easily. n
(The writer is an engineer and an ambassador of ER in MUET, Jamshoro)
