Rotary District Welcome Indian Business Exchange

Members of Rotary District 1280, with Exchange participants, Deputy Mayor Jean Hornby and Mayor of Rochdale Ashley Dearnley

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The Rotary District 1280 (including many local Rotary clubs in and around Rochdale) has just completed a Group Study Exchange Visit with five young professionals from India. The team from the State of Rajasthan, visited Rochdale as part of their 4 week trip, including educational visits to Rochdale Online Ltd, Zen Internet Services, Pennine Acute Hospital Trusts, and Rochdale MBC.

The Exchange programme, which is a cultural and vocational exchange for young business people, has proved a great success with participants. Educational visits were made to Touchstones Museum, Rochdale Pioneers Museum at The Baum, plus an afternoon tea with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Rochdale at the Town Hall.

Indian Broadcast journalist Salila Bhansali was very impressed with her visit to the town, especially spending a day at the Rochdale Online office. She said "It was extremely interesting for someone in my line of work to come to visit a British news provider. Internet news is something different for me and I found it very informative."

"All the people I met have been very nice and helpful to us all, I'm now looking forward to the next part of the trip to the Isle of Man."

The programme is designed to develop professional and leadership skills among young adults to better prepare them to address the needs of their communities and an increasingly global workplace.

The team were hosted by the Rotary Clubs of Rochdale, Rochdale East and Rochdale ’86. They experienced a cultural visit to Rochdale incorporating visits to The Touchstones Heritage Centre, The Rochdale Pioneers Museum, and The Rochdale Town Hall. After a conducted tour of the latter the Mayor and his Deputy entertained the visitors to afternoon tea in the Mayor’s Parlour.

At the conclusion of the visit the visitors presented the Deputy Mayor, Jean Hornby, with a hand painted figure of Lord Christina on a piece of silk and an inlaid marble figure of Lord Ganesha, representing happiness, goodwill and blessings from the Indian people. The Deputy Mayor responded with token gifts from the people of Rochdale.

The team of 5 visitors are as below:-

• Salila Bhansali, team leader. A CEO of a Radio Station designed to broadcast educational programmes
• Sheenu Jhawar –Healthcare Mamagement
• Manish Chaturvedy---Assistant Professor Nephrology. Kidney Disease Specialist and Consultant
• Bhavik Dholakia – Chartered Accountant Partner
• Bhanu Gupta – Marketing Manager

The visitors remarked on the magnificence of the architecture of the Town Hall which they said they will always remember.