Rotary District 3141 under the leadership of District Governor Shashi Sharma, community Service

Avenue and Rotary Club of Bombay West have organized a talent cum fashion show of special children on Saturday, 29th June, 2019 at the state of the art Mukesh Patel Auditorium, Vile Parle West. The program was called “DHADKAN, a Specially Abled Miracle”. The focus was on removing the stereotypes that surround disability.

The Rotary District Governor Shashi gave a very powerful message saying ”They’re not just runway models, they’re Role Models.” “As a large segment of the society still perceives the ‘differently abled’ as helpless individuals, “Dhadkan” is a small attempt to make a big change in the minds of people; an attempt to make people realize, that the physical condition is not a barrier in fulfilling their dreams.” said Group

Chief Avenue Head Rtn. Chetan Desai. “It will be enticing to see a lot of paradigms being broken and will make people endure beauty in all body types, ages and disabilities. Hitting hard on misconceptions, it will be phenomenal to watch beauty in so many facets.” Said Avenue Chair Rtn. Dr. Mona Shah.

“This is about Inclusion, this is about Diversity. This is about every individual out there who is holding himself back.” Said President of the host club, Rtn. Anand Gupta. More than 400 differently abled children from different institutions with their parents or guardians have attended the program. 100+ children performed in the talent and fashion show. 50 volunteer of NGOs working with differently abled children were also present. More than 250 Rotarians, Rotaractors and Innerwheel members encouraged and appreciate the efforts of these children with whistles and applauses. Performances of Shadow Artits on Pulwama attack theme and Touching Little Hearts (Project where Rotarians supported more than 1000 pediatric heart

surgeries of bleow poverty line children) were just awesome.

Feedback from Keya Shah(Dhirubhai Amnani School , 12th Grade Student) sums up this wonderful event very nicely. I experienced some of the most emotional moments of my life while watching the Dhadkan show. Seeing all of these special children with unbreakable spirit was so inspiring that it made me question the definition of what our society labels as ‘disabled’. The confidence with which the children came up on stage would be hard to find in most ‘normal’ people like us. I felt such a tremendous sense of empathy with the children and got this strong urge to join an organization

like the Rotary which does magnificent work to support and touch the lives of these miraculous children who have been fighting a mountain of battles since the time they were born. The smiles and the joy on the faces of the children, not one dry eye in the audience and the satisfaction on the faces of the Rotarians made for such a positive feeling in that auditorium and gave me a sense of comfort that yes there is still a long way to go but our society will get there one.

Report by Rtn. Chetan Desai, Dist. Group Chief Avenue Head – Community Service.