Rotary Club of Bahari-Dar-es-Salaam

The first meeting of the organising group was held on 21^st July 1988 at the residence of then PP George Ferentinos. (Now PDG). PP George, PP Dinos, P Ivo and CS Harry Freaker and 14 prospective members were present. (Plus 5 apologies).PP George had been appointed DG’s Special Representative for the formation of a new Rotary club in Dar. RC Dar es salaam had agreed to sponsor the new club. The District at that time consisted of Botswana, Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, Mauritius & Zambia.

At this meeting we agreed to the name and agreed to meet weekly for Dinner 7 for 7.30pm at the Oyster Bay Hotel. The meeting elected HK as President, Jimmy as Vice President, Gautam as Secretary, and Keki Wadia as Treasurer. The first meeting of the Provisional Rotary Club of Bahari Dar es salaam was held on Thursday 4^th August 1988 at the Oyster Bay Hotel. PDG Amu, PP Dinos, P Ivo and CS Harry Freaker attended. A message of greeting was received from DG Brij Behal and Dinos and Ivo spoke on objects and meaning of Rotary, and Amu spoke about the District and attendance criteria. It was noted that we had 19 original prospective members and we had since invited 6 more. The membership fee and entrance fee of shs 7,000 for the year was approved.

The provisional Rotary Club continued to meet regularly at the Oyster Bay Hotel from 4^th August onwards. At subsequent meetings the Constitution and By Laws were approved. The first Club Service Directors were Vasant Champsi and Bob Hawkins, Community Service Director was Suresh Chandra, Vocational Service Director was Dr. Vinod Bhandari, and International Service Director was Charles Dobie.

Charter membership was closed at 24 members. At the 5^th Meeting held on 1^st September 18 members were present making 75% attendance. At this meeting Application Forms for admission to Rotary International were signed. A special breakfast meeting was held on 10^th September 1988 at 8am at the Oyster bay Hotel to receive the District Governor Brij Behal. The Governor signed our application to RI and sent it to RI Headquarters.

The club held its first AGM on 8^th December 1998 and PP George Ferentinos announced that the Rotary Club of Bahari Dare s salaam was admitted to RI on 1^st December 1998.In December 1998 the Board commenced to process new membership and Raju Dave, Muzu Sulemanji and Paul Hinks were inducted.

In 1989 the club began to seriously look into opportunities to provide service to the community. The first project undertaken by the Club was the completion of a dormitory at the Tanzania Society for the Deaf which was promoted by Suresh Chandra. The next project was the supply of secondary school books donated by USIS that was promoted by Mike Mavrokefelos. The books were sent to Shaban Robert, Forodhani, Utete and Popatlal Secondary schools. The vocational service committee started already in 1989 to get involved in “School Careers Day”. The first International service project was the donation of medical equipment to the Hindu Mandal Hospital. This equipment was received from Austria through the contacts established by one of the charter members Gulu Sehmi.

Jimmy Zibarras took over as President on 1^st July 1989 and his was an eventful year. Jimmy met the Mayor of Dar es salaam and agreed to renovate the War Memorial Gardens. This project started in 1991 and was completed in 1992. We took over the maintenance of the gardens in 1993 and we continue to maintain it more than 10 years later. In 1989 the club made the first of many donations to Polio Plus starting with shs 100,000.

In November 1989 Zulobia Dhala designed our Banner & Club Logo and the first batch of banners was donated by Charter member Hassan Dhala.

1990 also saw the first fund raising event of the club with a Charity Walk to raise funds for the Deaf School dormitory project.

In January 1992 we changed our meeting venue from the Oyster Bay Hotel to the Bushtrekker Pearl Club. We moved nine months later to the Motel Agip. During this period we also changed our meeting time from Dinner to Lunch. We spent many happy years at the Agip until we moved to the Sheraton.

 

 

 

 

In the field of Community Service the Club has been very active since 1989. The first projects were the Renovation of the Dormitory at the Tanzania School for the Deaf, Supply of School Books to Secondary Schools and Hospital Equipment to the Hindu Mandal Hospital. The first Matching Grant project was a water project with the RC of Harlow, UK. Some of the projects undertaken by the club over its 15 years.

 

           

            Renovation of the War Memorial Gardens

Bus Shelters Project

Water Project

Donation of Trash Bins

Tricycles for the Disabled

Playground for the Deaf School

Bicycles for District Medical Orderlies

Assistance to the Dogo Dogo Centre

Jaipur Foot Project assistance

Nanyambe Village, Mtwara Matching Grant

Mkonge School Njombe Matching Grant

Tree Planting project

Donation of Medicines to Muhimbili Hospital from Mayfield Edmonton Canada with help from Rtn Dr Zaheer Lakhani  

 

Today the club is busy as ever with two major projects. The now famous 3-H Grant Kilosa Integrated Health Project/ River Blindness, and the Dar es salaam Remand Home. Additional current community service activities include assistance to Mloka and Mwaseni Primary Schools with assistance from Rotary Clubs in Netherlands.  Providing boreholes in the Msangara region and looking after the Remand Home in Dar-es-Salaam.

 

In the spirit of Rotary giving 27 current members have made private donations to the Rotary Foundation and received recognition as Paul Harris Fellows. This is 65% of the Club’s membership. 

The Club membership is now 48 members of which 6 are women.

The Club meet regularly on Thursdays at the Royal Palm Hotel at 12.30pm.  At the meetings speakers make presentations based on their vocation or activity they are involved with.  These meetings are always very lively and help fellowship grow within the Club and reaches out to the community. We have made friends and advanced international understanding, goodwill and peace through our belief in the ideal of service and to continue our mission to Lend a Hand in our Community and in our World.