Newtown Rotary Welcomes Study Team From India

Newtown Rotary welcomed a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team from India that is completing a four-week visit to Connecticut. The team members are from Rotary District 3080, located in the northern section of India just north of New Delhi.

Since its inception in 1965, the Group Study Exchange Program has provided grants for countless teams of men and women in the early stages of their business and professional careers to travel abroad and share local culture and vocational information with the representatives of their respective professions in another country.

The teams consisting of a Rotarian leader and four young (25-40 years of age) men and women who spend four to six weeks studying the host country’s institutions, economy, and culture while observing how their own professions are practiced abroad. More then 500 exchanges between paired Rotary districts occur each year, advancing the program’s ultimate goal of promoting international understanding, goodwill, and peace.

Team Leader Rotarian Triclochan T. (T.S.) Anand introduced each member of the team who then told the Rotarians a little about themselves, their family and the town or city in which they live. T.S. told how Rotary is very much alive in India with 1920 clubs and more than 68,000 members. One of the big problems they had in the past was polio, which affected thousands of young people each year. Since the Rotary Polio Plus Program went into effect, however, the number of cases dropped to 2,050 in 2001, 60 in 2003, and the goal is to eradicate polio completely by the end of 2005. On a polio immunization weekend in 2001, 152 million children were immunized against this disease.

Each of the team members stay with a Rotary family for approximately a week and become part of the family. During the day they follow a carefully planned itinerary, including visits to government and cultural institutions, school, religious and historical sites, and other points of interest. In addition, each member spends as least on day a week studying and observing the practice of his or her profession.

This week they are learning about the Danbury/Waterbury area and on Saturday a farewell barn dance picnic will be held as they will be leaving on Sunday for their return to their homeland. Earlier this year, a team from District 7980 (southern four counties of Connecticut) spent four weeks in their home territory in India.