I am Rotarian Martin Njeru of the Rotary Club of Nairobi Thika Road. My Rotary journey has been both an exciting transformational sojourn into greatness and excellence. I now appreciate so many things I took for granted in days gone by! That glass of water, that hot meal, so so many things. Rotary has opened my vision to the world around me.
My story begins in August 2016 over lunch in Nyeri, it was Rotarian Faith Mbaire who invited me for a Koroga. Faith is a colleague of mine, a lawyer by training and a strong advocate of improving people’s lives. I never had an opportunity to hear about a Koroga before. She explained to me that her club – the Rotary Club of Nyeri- had a fundraising event for a planned Children’s Home visit on that coming week.
Basically they were fundraising for a charity project in a fun way. Given my Social Work background, I was immediately intrigued. I don’t want a chance to make difference in the Community bypass me. I signed up for the Koroga and on that day I met about twenty complete strangers all working together to make the event a success. We prepared all the meals on that day (no staff were hired, we were saving money for the children’s home visit…)
In a few hours complete strangers turned into friends, we shared laughter and stories as if we had met years ago. We fundraised enough money to fund the children’s visit budget and even had surplus for the “African Bahasha”.
The following weekend I joined in for the Children’s Home visit in Othaya, the visit was an eye opener. The children had horrifying stories for their short lives – some had been abandoned by their parents for various reasons – yet they had very broad smiles. They welcomed warmly as they sang their hearts out. I am a Meru man, but with all the socialized Meru man masculinity in me,I shed some tears. I was moved by what was going on in the lives of such young souls. We shared a meal together, cleaned up and took some photos. After the event, we headed to Othaya town for a beautiful evening of swallow ship. (A corrupted Rotary lingo meaning, Swallow – drink, Ship- Fellowship). Complete strangers –Rotarians- became friends.
Rotarian Faith asked me to research more about Rotary from Rotary.org and their club website to get a clear picture of what it entailed. I loved the amazing stories and projects from most parts of the world particularly Africa. Some of the projects were, Medical camps, Book drives, River clean up, borehole drilling. Et al. It was simply breathtaking.
The following week on a Tuesday, I attended their Rotary Fellowship. It was an awesome formal meeting that ran like clockwork. I got excited by the protocols and orders of the Rotarians, and being a Government bureaucrat I was comfortable with the formalities. Keen on time management, the meeting was over within an hour.
Going forward, I consistently participated in most of the Rotary fellowships, events, Service Projects, club visits and trainings, and took me a few months before I was formally invited to join the Rotary club of Nyeri. What followed was an organized and systematic process that culminated to our formal induction to the club presided by then the District Governor, Rotarian Richard Omwela, on 18th November 2016.
Upon joining the club, I signed up for the Service Project and New Generation Committees. One of the remarkable projects that was the joint Global Grant project with an international Rotary Club from the USA, to equip Kimanjo Health Center in Laikipia County with state of the art medical equipment. Not forgetting the amazing Rotary Sunshine Rally, it is here that the real magnitude of the work Rotarians do completely sank in.
The following Rotary year, I joined the Board as the New Generation Director. I supported in the formation of the Rotaract club of Katarina and the Rotaract club of KMTC Nyeri, both now vibrant clubs serving their communities to positively impact lives. We had a good time interacting with young people in all sort of events that created as strong bond that lasts to date.
My tour of duty ended in Nyeri County with my employer opting to post me back to our Headquarters in Nairobi. Upon settling, I started to look for a Club and as fate would have it, I joined the Rotary club of Nairobi Thika Road and got hooked up immediately. The search ended as soon as it began. The photo of 30 or so Rotarians in white T-shirts in Gilgil, Nakuru County during a Medical Camp captioned “ Rotary Club of Nairobi Thika Road are today in Nakuru for a medical camp in Kiungururia village” stuck in my mind. The photo was posted in the Club’s Facebook page.
As they say the rest is history, my love for poetry has been reborn, my community service journey has also been re-energized having served as the Service Projects Director in the 2020-21 Rotary Year. During the onset Covid-19, I represented my club in the D9212 Emergency Response Committee in which we engaged in rapid response mitigation efforts that included food distribution, provision of hand washing stations among other complementary initiatives that included Gender based counselling undertaken by other Rotarians. It was during one of the food distribution events that we got to meet Ian Keya, a young differently abled young man with multiple challenges that has taught me the beauty and blessing that so many of us take for granted. My club is actively supporting this young man in numerous way in a bid to prove that truly disability is not inability I always introduce my friends the latest being Sister Mary Simiyu, a Catholic Nun who has recently inducted to join us and has made a commitment to serve to change lives.
The journey continuous, I always dream the day our Club will have a vibrant ever growing Endowment fund supporting many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain education to the highest levels possible. Having grown up in a small village in Rural Kenya, I have appreciated that education is the key that opens all doors!!!
I am and will still be a proud Rotarian ready to serve and change lives.