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Students do their bit, build wells for drought-hit

RCHR initiated the project 'Boon' in association with the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), an NGO in Pune. They have adopted the project of building wells, sanitation and entrepreneurship in Kumbharwadi, Kolhapur.

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Members of Rotaract Club of HR College who have been doing drought mitigation work
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While their peers make most of their vacation, these enterprising college students are busy continuing a noble job. For the past three years, Rotaract Club of HR College (RCHR) has been raising funds for the drought-affected and has collected Rs17.5 lakh so far, out of which they collected Rs6.1 lakh this year alone.

RCHR initiated the project 'Boon' in association with the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), an NGO in Pune. They have adopted the project of building wells, sanitation and entrepreneurship in Kumbharwadi, Kolhapur.

Explaining the project to dna, RCHR president Gotham Tikyani said: “While we consider the problem of drought at its epitome, the project was started a few years ago. The Kumbharwadi area has four villages and people have to walk for a minimum of half an hour to get water. We spent seven days in the village to understand their daily woes. Water, sanitation and employment have bogged them down.”

Over the past three years, RCHR has been successful in making three wells and are in the process of making its fourth and the last one. A very smart step taken by this enterprising group was to make the villagers pay 15% of the entire cost.

Ansh Hirawat, PRO of RCHR, explained: “If we had paid the entire amount, it wouldn't have given them a sense of ownership and responsibility. Hence, we asked them to contribute some money for it.”

They also appointed a self-help group, a committee of nine women, which is responsible for getting villagers to pay attention to the maintenance of the well. 

While the group was in Kumbharwadi, they invited entrepreneurship ideas from students of 11th standard, which they would sponsor. “A village girl wanted to open a beauty parlour; we sponsored a part of her training course.

She opened the first beauty parlour in the vicinity and now she earns Rs3,000 a month, which is a huge amount for a villager,” added Tikyani.

They also provided counselling to youth who did not want to pursue farming. RCHR conducted a few programmes with them to ensure proper farming. “We explained to them that the issue was with the techniques of farming and not farming itself. Now, with proper techniques, they are able to save water and also have bent towards 100% organic farming without pesticides,” said Tikyani.

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