BlogClub ProjectCommunity Service
Do you know who the world’s biggest killer is? Do not be amazed to hear it is the mosquito. The situation is not very different in Sri Lanka either. During the year 2017, there had been close to about 190,000 reported Dengue cases around the country. Out of this, close to about 20% had been reported from the Colombo District. After a bit of research into the matter, we as Rotaractors identified that the developing Colombo’s Construction sites make a large contribution to the spread of Dengue. Furthermore, most of these sites provided ideal breeding spaces for Dengue mosquitos. The progress at certain construction sites was also hampered due to the spread of Dengue.
The Rotaract District 3220 had also launched an awareness campaign on Dengue, identifying its gravity during the period of July and August. Working in hand in hand with the Rotaract District’s initiative #LetsStartWithUs, we launched an awareness poster campaign, targeting the workers at construction sites around Colombo.
With the help of our club members, we managed to reach some of the large construction sites in Colombo such as the Altair Tower, Colombo City Centre, The Castle project Rajagiriya and Waterfront. We managed to reach more than 600 people in total from these construction sites, who are direct stakeholders of this issue. This was the first time such an awareness program was conducted at most of these construction sites.
Not only the constriction sites, but we also managed to reach Ministry of Housing Sethsiripaya, MMGS Architects, MAS Intimates Rathmalana, Fonterra Brands Lanka Biyagama, Nadimala Jesu Madura Church and CodeGen International through our poster campaign.
The safety officers of the construction sites mentioned that even if 10% of their staff actively participates to destroy the Dengue breeding spots, they could build Dengue free sites. This gave us a contentment, that as Rotaractors we managed to trigger at least a major portion of that 10% from the awareness campaign.
More photographs: Flicker Album
By Rtr. Poorna Rajawasam
187
