Thursday 7 April 2011
Presido's Message for April 2011
Fellow Rotarians,
I greet and wish you all the best in the magazine month (APRIL).We have got a very tight program during the month, I know we can go about it if we work together.
• We have a monthly Rotary magazine availed to subscribers who have paid Rotary dues. This is the most available source of information about Rotary.
• The Rotary International Website source of rich Information about Rotary world wide.
• District 9200 website which has rich information about our District and visiting other clubs to learn how others do things differently.
The RIDGES group is leading April activities (Presido, Rtns Sr. Angelina, Dorothy, Rose and Deo),please lend it a hand to do things, BIGGER,BETTER & BOLDER
06/04/2011 Director new Generation-Recap of KBMU installation
Country RCC officer/PP Thereza- about Jjongoza functions.
09/04/2011 Keep Kajjansi Clean 09.00am – 11.00am
Jjanyi Immunisation
Kampala South Sports Gala
13/04/2011 Guest Speaker (Mr Charles Kasozi) Enhancement of Agriculture in peri-urban areas.
17/04/2011 Charter Night at Presidents’ Home at 4:00pm
20/04/2011 DCA
27/04/2011 DCA Recap
March was Literacy month. I take the opportunity to thank the VENTS Buddy Group for taking extra effort to see that we learnt more about Rotary from all sources of information (Bravo).
I greet and wish you all the best in the magazine month (APRIL).We have got a very tight program during the month, I know we can go about it if we work together.
• We have a monthly Rotary magazine availed to subscribers who have paid Rotary dues. This is the most available source of information about Rotary.
• The Rotary International Website source of rich Information about Rotary world wide.
• District 9200 website which has rich information about our District and visiting other clubs to learn how others do things differently.
The RIDGES group is leading April activities (Presido, Rtns Sr. Angelina, Dorothy, Rose and Deo),please lend it a hand to do things, BIGGER,BETTER & BOLDER
06/04/2011 Director new Generation-Recap of KBMU installation
Country RCC officer/PP Thereza- about Jjongoza functions.
09/04/2011 Keep Kajjansi Clean 09.00am – 11.00am
Jjanyi Immunisation
Kampala South Sports Gala
13/04/2011 Guest Speaker (Mr Charles Kasozi) Enhancement of Agriculture in peri-urban areas.
17/04/2011 Charter Night at Presidents’ Home at 4:00pm
20/04/2011 DCA
27/04/2011 DCA Recap
March was Literacy month. I take the opportunity to thank the VENTS Buddy Group for taking extra effort to see that we learnt more about Rotary from all sources of information (Bravo).
JJONGOZA RCC BUILDS A NEW HOME FOR NEEDY WIDOW
She tends to her banana plantation every morning with her grandchildren, some assisting her with the weeding while the young ones play in the dust waiting for what the day brings. Deep down her heart are flowing tears of rejection and hopelessness yet on the outlook you might think all is ok with her. This is the life of Maama Fede Nakachwa a widow of Jjongoza village near Kalisizo in Rakai District.
Maama Fede’s problems started way back after she lost her husband and all her nine biological children who succumbed to the deadly diseases and also the biting poverty. When they died one by one, they left young ones whom the old lady could no longer be able to look after. Now that she had become weaker due to old age, and the house had also aged seriously with iron sheets rusting away and may be due to some heavy rains some of the iron sheets were blown away leaving the house literary with a few sheets. Looking at the house, it was just waiting for a great fall since the walls of mad and wattle had started giving way.
The idea of building a home for Mama Fede arose from the RCC’s Sunday weekly meetings pointed out by one of the members Rita Bugoba who presented the old lady’s ordeal to members of the RCC. Members were touched and felt the need to help the needy old woman by serving above self. The RCC went further to build a kitchen and a dryer (katandaalo) for the widow.
The RCC members led by Specioza Lusiba Namatovu, mobilised themselves and contributed whatever local material they could get to see that their fellow villager gets a descent home. Some brought old iron sheets they were no longer using and also baked the bricks used for building the house.
“since the rain season has started, we wanted to see that Maama Fede gets a house in the soonest possible time that’s why we had to work in a record time of three weeks” Specioza revealed.
After completion of the house, the RCC management informed their mother Club the Rotary Club of Kajjansi about the whole project and how they wanted to hand it over. This excited members of Kajjansi RC and decided that the president John Mary Luberenga leads a team of four to go to Jjongoza to meet members of Jjongoza RCC to celebrate the achievement.
‘The achievement came as a challenge to the Rotary Club and a big surprise too’ said John Mary Luberenga President of Rotary Club of Kajjansi adding that “the RCC members made a combined effort without even support from the mother club and built a house for that old widow known as Maama Fede Nakachwa”.
On Saturday, April 3, 2011, a group of four Rotarians headed for Jjongoza to hand over the house to the widow and also celebrate the achievements. During the function Mama Fede was overcame by emotions and had to weep tears of joy amidst songs of praises to the Almighty God for giving her a new lease of life more especially for her grandchildren.
“ I produced nine biological children but all of them have now long passed on” Maama Fede narrated adding that she stays with some of the orphaned grandchildren and great grandchildren who are not even going to school.
“Kati kannegolole, era ne bwetonnya sikyatya nti naafa n’abaana b’abaana bange” she said in Luganda meaning that “ Now I can stretch my legs and sleep, even if it rains cats and dogs, I am quiet sure my grandchildren won’t perish in this shack of a house”
The function was presided over by the country Chair RCC Uganda Charles Baganja who appreciated the act of self help (bulungi bwa nsi) done by the RCC in the entire Jjongoza. He however advised them to identify a project that would generate income for the benefit of the RCC members.
The President of the Rotary Club of Kajjansi together with PP Theresa Baganja Country Chair Rotarian at Work and Rtn. Harriet Nabuuma attended.
The function attracted civic leaders from the Local councils 1, 2 and 3, the chairperson of the neighbouring RCC Mayo Bugaaju (under The Rotary Club of Kalisizo) and another provisional RCC in Kyango.
At the same function the RCC changed their leadership and the outgoing chairperson expressed a challenge they are faced with of being misinterpreted as a government funded project thus people of Jjongoza denying responsibilities of maintaining their well saying “aba RCC bakole ndaba be bafunamu” meaning “Let the RCCs work after all they benefit from government”.
The incoming chairperson pledged to lift the RCC to greater heights. This RCC happens to be one of the beneficiaries of the Kulika development projects. Many nice looking vegetable gardens were exhibited too.
The coffee is also improving and there are high expectations of good yields next year.
I wish to thank our partners in service Mary Tenant and team from Brunswick Coastal, PAG Peters Musoke, District Secretary Robert Nsibirwa and all Rotarians of the Rotary Club of Kajjansi for being so supportive in lifting the livelihood of the people of Jjongoza.
Thanks also go to the entire Jjongoza team for valuing the resources and support given to them.
Compiled by
PP Theresa Baganja (PHF)
Country Chair
Rotarians At Work.
Be Rotarians of Muscle- Matthew Kibuuka
Kibuuka said that a rotarian who is unethical should be expelled from Rotary. As a Rotarian you should ponder on these questions: Do you regulary attend your fellowships? Do you pay your dues? Do you attend and participate in your club projects? ‘I appeal to each one of you here to get involved in the Club projects’, he said adding that ‘No body can afford to be a Rotarian unless he/she has paid his or her dues’.
He went on to say Kajjansi is my other Club. Rotary to me means a force for Development. It is a unifying force for developing countries. With all your different professions, we see value for each other. Rotary has allowed us to accept that we are something.
He told Rotarians that he was ready to assist them in writing projects for their Club.
I beg you to be Rotarians of substance by paying your dues. Be Rotarians of muscle so that people can trust and respect you
ENHANCING COMMUNITY SERVICE THROUGH THE PROVISION OF MICROFINANCE
The reason why we are Rotarians and indeed why Rotary exists and continues to be very relevant to the world is the provision of service to the less fortunate in our society. Our motto of “Service above self” says it all. The 4 Avenues of Service namely; Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service and International Service enable us to effectively execute our noble cause.
Community Service is the opportunity Rotary Clubs have to implement club projects and activities that improve life in the community. In working with communities, Rotarians have over time come to realize the need to empower these communities so that they can reasonably take care of their needs during and even long after a project has closed. Whatever type of project is carried out in the community the fear of the re-occurrence of the same problem or the failure to maintain the facilities provided after the project closure is always apparent. The main reason for this fear is that the communities we try to help live in perpetual poverty.
Pursuant to the principle of continued service to the community, microfinance has been identified as one of the most viable tools to empower communities that Rotarians work with.
Microfinance can be defined as “the provision of financial services to low income clients, including consumers, and self employed who traditionally lack access to banking and related services”.
“It is a movement whose objective is a world in which as many poor, near poor households, as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services which include among others savings, credit, insurance and funds transfers”. Microfinance is a proven tool for fighting poverty on a large scale. It provides very small loans to poor people to start or expand very small self sufficient businesses. With microfinance the communities are financially empowered to break out of the poverty circle so that they can with dignity take care of their most essential needs like food, health, shelter, clothing, education and other social obligations.
As Rotarians we need therefore to be cognizant of this powerful tool and incorporate it in our community projects. This will entail focusing on the following:
.At project design, microfinance should be one of the components that is given prominence
.Communities be sensitized and mobilized to form groups that start savings and credit schemes that will eventually turn into small financial institutions
-Provision of capacity building to the groups so that they can plan and manage well their businesses both at group and individual level
-Utilising the RCCs as a nucleus for formation of the financial groups
-Designing appropriate saving and loan products for the groups
-Providing seed capital mainly for credit
Microfinance may not be a panacea to all the poverty and social related problems but is a tool that each club should embrace and mainstream in most if not all community based projects. It may not work well with institutional based projects but history has so far shown that it is a very successful tool for empowering the poor and most the unfortunate in communities .As we implement the New Vision of RI its imperative that we look at better, bigger and bolder projects that will enable us be more visible in our communities and microfinance will surely give us mileage towards achieving our goals.
BY AH Charles Kulibanza Byanyima
District Microfinance Chair 2010/11
And 86TH DCA Treasurer
Community Service is the opportunity Rotary Clubs have to implement club projects and activities that improve life in the community. In working with communities, Rotarians have over time come to realize the need to empower these communities so that they can reasonably take care of their needs during and even long after a project has closed. Whatever type of project is carried out in the community the fear of the re-occurrence of the same problem or the failure to maintain the facilities provided after the project closure is always apparent. The main reason for this fear is that the communities we try to help live in perpetual poverty.
Pursuant to the principle of continued service to the community, microfinance has been identified as one of the most viable tools to empower communities that Rotarians work with.
Microfinance can be defined as “the provision of financial services to low income clients, including consumers, and self employed who traditionally lack access to banking and related services”.
“It is a movement whose objective is a world in which as many poor, near poor households, as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services which include among others savings, credit, insurance and funds transfers”. Microfinance is a proven tool for fighting poverty on a large scale. It provides very small loans to poor people to start or expand very small self sufficient businesses. With microfinance the communities are financially empowered to break out of the poverty circle so that they can with dignity take care of their most essential needs like food, health, shelter, clothing, education and other social obligations.
As Rotarians we need therefore to be cognizant of this powerful tool and incorporate it in our community projects. This will entail focusing on the following:
.At project design, microfinance should be one of the components that is given prominence
.Communities be sensitized and mobilized to form groups that start savings and credit schemes that will eventually turn into small financial institutions
-Provision of capacity building to the groups so that they can plan and manage well their businesses both at group and individual level
-Utilising the RCCs as a nucleus for formation of the financial groups
-Designing appropriate saving and loan products for the groups
-Providing seed capital mainly for credit
Microfinance may not be a panacea to all the poverty and social related problems but is a tool that each club should embrace and mainstream in most if not all community based projects. It may not work well with institutional based projects but history has so far shown that it is a very successful tool for empowering the poor and most the unfortunate in communities .As we implement the New Vision of RI its imperative that we look at better, bigger and bolder projects that will enable us be more visible in our communities and microfinance will surely give us mileage towards achieving our goals.
BY AH Charles Kulibanza Byanyima
District Microfinance Chair 2010/11
And 86TH DCA Treasurer
The History of the Rotary Club of Kajjansi
The Rotary year coincides with that of Government. As governments are busy finalizing and reading budgets, Rotary International is busy preparing for organizing and holding District Conferences and Conventions. Again it is in the same period that Presidents of Rotary Clubs for the coming year (2010/11) are installed. On the 30th June, 2010, the club has installed Rotarian John Mary Luberenga as the 8th President of the club.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the incoming President, wish him well and pledge our Royality and support.
The Rotary Club of Kajjansi held its first meeting or rather fellowship on the 24th of January 2002 and was chartered on the 15th February 2003.
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