Since March 2020, you, me, and everyone is fighting one battle against Covid-19. Some battles make a loud noise but some of them are silent wars.

The same challenge was there for ‘the Rotaractors’. As a group of youngsters who used to be very dynamic and functional, having to reach their collective goals just through a computer was indeed an unforeseen exception for them.

Do you think ‘the Rotaractors’ could win this battle? 

From here onwards, I will be narrating an interesting tale on the Battle of Rotaract and the Covid-19 pandemic. We, as the Rotaract club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura acted out differently and thought differently to face this sudden pandemic.

Making a battle plan for something they had never ever seen in history was quite doubtful and uncertain. Having said that Rotaractors are always up for new challenges, they consistently strived to keep the flame alive every month they were under lockdown. As we say that unity is strength, the geographical distance never came in between the Rotaractors. That’s how they were able to victoriously conduct not just local, but also international projects.

The cultural exchange project, ‘Rotamates’ by RACUSJ is the best example. As there is a silver lining in every dark cloud, the International Service Avenue of RACUSJ were able to make the maximum use out of the pandemic situation.

They accomplished the target of gaining not just a good ‘International Understanding’, but also, they provided a noteworthy ‘International Service’. Not to mention the barriers they had to overcome when collaborating with 11 Rotaract clubs and one Rotaract International District, including countries like India, Philippines to countries like Peru, Egypt, and England, the huge time difference between them was the biggest challenge. Some foreign Rotaractors were busy with their careers and academics, but amidst all, they still managed to be super supportive.

That’s how the Rotamates could get a virtual experience just like they had actually visited those countries, by holding food, aesthetic, and travel destination exchanges with a huge food donation program, and finally by having discussions on the socio-economic and political issues to implement solutions in order to eradicate them. Don’t you think they just completely won against the solitary confinement of Covid-19?

Despite missing the enjoyment of planning an event physically, the Club Service avenue of RACUSJ came up with an amusing strategy to make the last December a ‘Memorable December’. They executed this project so that being stuck at home won’t stop their peers from being socially and mentally engaging.

A platform was created to showcase the creativity of them in Photography and Handicrafts with a competition that was carried out with the successful participation of over 100 competitors. According to many, the most enjoyable part of this project ‘Memorable December’ was the open mic night held via zoom.

This brought distant friends together, with the beauty of the most festive season of the year, Christmas. People were asked to dress up in Red, Green, and all the festive colours (having to dress up is a big part we miss in quarantine, right??), and together, the Rotaractors sang carols that night making it a real joyous party for everybody. As the organizing committee said, the toughest challenge was to carry out all the planning just over the phone, but the final outcome proved that their tactics were fruitful.

The Rotaractors had to not just invent new strategies, but also to completely renew and readjust some previously prepared schemes. And giving the outcome just as strong as in a physical project was still expected!

Initially the projects ‘Rise Up Sri Lanka’, ‘Be Professionally Equipped’ and ‘Cracker Jacks’ were fully intended to execute as physical projects. But they had to come up with whole new plans to adjust these projects according to the pandemic situation.

Project ‘Rise Up Sri Lanka’ from the Community Service Avenue saw the end of its first phase on 31st of January 2021 after completing four appreciative webinars. They held these with the hope of eradicating the social barriers that prevail in the youth of Sri Lanka by encouraging them to embrace the differences in the society, and rise up as one vigorous nation.

Many see the walls standing between different ethnic groups and religious parties in the out motherland, but not many sees how the lack of mutual understanding, gender acceptance, and inability to appreciate the beauty of diversity adversely affect the unity among us.

Hence, they decided to make a change with pragmatic and intellectually stimulating discussion webinars with some intriguing personalities like renowned religious leaders covering all the main religions, highly achieved academics, professionals, and also legendary artists who actually have a voice in Sri Lanka.

Maybe reaching an audience of a total of more than 400 different people in three days would be a thousand times harder if it was to be held physically! Hoping they conquered the hearts of Sri Lankan youth; it would be a slip if I didn’t mention ‘Cracker Jacks 2.0’.

Now with the isolation, people are again more conscious about ‘self-care. But how many of you think pampering your brain is as much as important as pampering your tummies while at home? It was the Professional Development Avenue of RACUSJ’s strenuous effort to boost IQ, EQ, and SQ levels of Rotaractors and Non-Rotaractors with the ultimate goal of achieving personality development.

Conducting an online IQ test with a participation of more than 120 people should be really fascinating! Moreover, three requisite webinars to gift the knowledge on how to boost self-esteem and be an overall balanced persona were really called for. Not to mention that the last webinar out of three reached a huge audience making it another landmark by RACUSJ.

You may have already noticed by now that it is ‘the Rotaractors’ who has won this. But it wasn’t the uphill battle of only RACUSJ. Many other remarkable projects were carried out by a number of other Rotaract clubs being super active battalions, not letting Covid-19 hold them back even for a moment. As far as we are concerned, “Million reasons to Rotaract”, “Herstory”, ”Are you ready” can be stated as some number-one war zones of this cyberbattle.

It is easy to nag about all the forces that stop you from winning the world, but this is how ‘The Rotaractors’ proved that they actually differ from the commoners.

They ‘Strived as One’ to fight against one enemy who separated them physically, but putting their heart and soul into this, even Covid-19 could not stop them from serving the community, the environment, or the world.

All hail the Rotaractors!

By Rtr. Tinaya Wijethunge