(someone suggested that I post this in the SCRIBES section; hope you enjoy the read!)

I learned about Rotaract after attending a leadership training camp in high school. Soon afterwards, I joined a local Rotaract Club with phenomenal role models who impressed upon me the power of Rotaract to reach out and make lasting changes, both locally and globally. I quickly found my calling as the Director of International Service at the Toronto-Don Valley Rotaract Club and after three years in several different positions, I became President of the club and enjoyed a character building experience like no other. By then, I was in my 2nd year of university and yearned to travel abroad and learn more about the world that had been opened up to me as a Rotaractor. I decided to take a year off university and go to China, with the aim of learning Mandarin and Chinese culture while teaching English. This was by far the riskiest yet most fruitful period of my life so far. During my stay in Nanning, China, I learned Taichi, Chinese painting, and how to play an instrument called the ErHu. I also had the fortune of learning Mandarin and teaching English while the SARS pandemic wrecked havoc in the country that I'd come to call my second home. I returned to Toronto determined to pursue my goal of studying medicine while dedicating myself to setting up international projects through Rotaract. I was delighted then to find out that the Rotaract Club of the University of Toronto had recently been established and even more overjoyed to find a group of eager individuals who were just as excited as I was. Unfortunately though, my studies kept me from participating and the Rotaract Club had its own challenges in becoming established. Nevertheless, I still dreamed of undertaking a truly grass-roots, international project through Rotaract and it was with this in mind that I decided to become President of the UofT Rotaract Club in my fourth year. With only a handful of serious members at the beginning of the year, we ended up not only turning around the Rotaract Club but completely transforming it into arguably the most active Rotaract Club in District 7070. Not only that, but we grew to pursue community service and professional development projects that spread the word about our projects and activities around campus, locally, and internationally. In December of 2004, I was fortunate enough to have been blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime by receiving an unexpected scholarship and having the privilege of applying the funds to setting up our International Child Health and Literacy Project, iNSP!Reach HOPE, in Krishnanagar, India (a town just 4 hours north of Kolkata) in partnership with Sashibhusan Karma Kendra (SKK), a local NGO, and the Rotary Club of Krishnanagar. After two and a half weeks of shooting our documentary in India and making sure that our project would become a sustainable one, I flew back to Toronto after the winter break and we start to seriously turn up the heat on our Rotaract projects and activities. Neverthless, I'd be lying if I gave the impression that everything went as planned; quite the opposite, in fact. There were many times when others and myself became frustrated with how much effort we were putting into the club and how seemingly few returns we were getting; yet the beauty of being in the Rotaract club was that we'd play off each others enthusiasm and pulled ourselves through trying times. The highlight of our efforts came a few weeks ago when, amidst the trials of our impending exams and end-of-the-year reports, we pulled off our first fundraiser for iNSP!Reach HOPE and the event turned out to truly be a success beyond our wildest expectations. Sitting in the banquet hall after all the guests had left, we just stared at each other speechless with joy -- not so much for all the money we'd raised; not so much for all the guests we'd been able to attract; and not so much for the wonderful impression we'd made; but rather for the hardships we'd overcome and how our experiences had brought us so much closer as a group. We were overjoyed because we'd accomplished what each one of us, deep down in the beginning, thought was impossible. We celebrated later that night as never before, each one of unable to wipe the silly grins off our faces. We just couldn't stop thinking, "We did it!". We realized later what a tremendous gift we'd been able to give each through Rotaract: the power to dream the "impossible", and the means to make it come true. With the first phase of iNSP!Reach HOPE behind us and so many exciting community and international service and professional and leadership development projects ahead of us, we look forward to reaching out even further across borders and continents and even deeper within our own communities to lessen the divide and heighten our understanding of the world around us. Visit our website, e-mail us, and let's begin an experience that will change our lives forever! Hope to hear from you soon, Ali Okhowat ali.okhowat@gmail.com