Speaker evening via Zoom.

In the fourth week of October, barriers came tumbling down between India and Pakistan when members of six Rotary clubs, three from India — RCs Kashipur Corbett, Kashipur and ­Aligarh — and three from Pakistan — RCs Lahore Garrison, Karachi Garden and  Bhubhar Chakwal — organised a zoom fellowship meet to foster peace between the two neighbours.

“There were over 170 participants in this meeting of both minds and hearts,” said Anil Ghai, from RC Kashipur Corbett, one of the coordinators of this meet. This meeting was one of the first of several such meetings to be organised by the Indus Peace Park Society (IPPS) which was conceived in 2015 and has 18 directors from countries such as the US, Canada, UK, Africa, India and Pakistan. “We comprise Rotarians with a passion for peace, and through Rotary clubs, are looking for more such Rotarians to join us,” he adds.

The forum is headed by PDG Kees van der Pol, RC Nakusp, RID 5080, Canada, and the whole idea was conceived by him when he led a friendship exchange programme to Pakistan in Feb 2015. Addressing the meet, he said he was a school headmaster and had discovered “extraordinary opportunities in Rotary to develop friendships across the world to do good.”