RAW PICTORIAL AT JJANYI

Organising the registration table at Jjanyi

PP Theresa Organising the registration table at Jjanyi

A mother recieves a mosquito net after testing for HIV/AIDS

P.E Rotary Club of Kampala South  gives  a mosquito to a mother  after testing for HIV/AIDS

P.E Rotary Club of Kampala South at Jjanyi during the Free HIV/AIDS testing and counselling during the Rotarians at Work 2012

How the Rotary Club of Kajjansi carried out Rotarians at Work 2012

By Rtn. Hannington Sebuliba

 Last Friday I got an opportunity to pick Lab technicians from the AIDS Information Centre in Mengo Kisenyi.   My station happened to be Kajjansi Health Centre III at Kawotto Hill commonly referred to as ‘ku  Dispensary’.

 I happened to work with the overall co-ordinator  of RAW activities in Kajjansi Rtn. Apollo. It was such an experience. I found a number of young men who were seated on forms waiting for a surgeon to undergo safe male Circumcision. They were about twenty young men most of them school children from the neighbouring  villages. They talked at length but you could see fear in theor eyes. As we were busy organising our station for free HIV/AIDS Testing and Counselling, they all looked to see what was going on.

President Peace second left introduces the guests to Rotarians of Kajjansi

When the nurse who was in charge of the men who were waiting to undergo circumcision arrived, they all waited to hear the good news from her. She told them that before they went in the theatre for that minor operation, it was advisable to first test for HIV/AIDS. This made our work easy. They started registering one by one, getting counselling, testing and finnaly getting their results. One young man (names withheld) told me after he received the results “am happy the results are negative, after circumcision, I will spend a year without engaging in sex” he said.

Rotarians at Work (RAW) is an initiative organised by Rotarians for Fighting AIDS Inc and sponsored among other organisations, the Coca Cola Africa Foundation. Rotary Clubs in the District 9200 target young people to test for HIV/AIDS and also get free counselling.

President Peace (Left) and Marion Bunch second left talk to Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors at Kajjansi Health Centre

I looked on for a while seeing young people getting counselling from AIDS counsellors and nurses. I saw how these professionals laboured to take these people through sensitive conversations that preceded the tests and the final one when they announced the results to them in camera. You would see the tension but all of them kept their cool.  Those who tested and wanted condoms were given some.

Rtn. Isma and Rtn. Rose try to convince a lady to go for HIV Testing at Kajjansi

I later on stood by the roadside and strated convincing whoever passed by to get tested and know his/her status. Many of them accepted to go for testing while some hestated. One young lady  from a nearby school who had innitially refused to gor for testing could not hold her joy on seeing her results. “Am going to show these results to my mum” she said on top of her voice as she left the health centre.

The exercise went on until the end of the day.

On the last day which was Saturday May 26, 2012. I was the first to arrive at the health centre and waited for Rtn. Moses Ssessanga to bring the Kits and Laboratory technicians. Later on Rtn. Rev. Grace brought the tent we used for the exercise.

The place was a bee hive of activities that day, as there was a national Mass Immunization Programme for Polio and Measles and at the other end of the Dispensary, there was a security meeting.

Most of the parents who brought their children for immunization took the opportunity to visit our tent for free HIV/AIDS testing and counselling. We decided to stand in strategic locations to encourage parents and the youth to test for HIV.

Rotarians pose for a photo with Marion Bunch during her visit to Kajjansi Health Centre last Saturday

One of our very own Rtn. Rev. Grace  who is an AIDS counsellor did a wonderful job of counselling the many people who came in for testing.

President Peace, PE Enid, Rtn. Frank, Rtn. Juliet, Rtn. Isma, Rtn. Rose, Rtn. Fr. Vianney and Rtn. SSS partcipated fully in this exercise.

When RFFA’s CEO, Marion Bunch arrived with her entourage led by Country RAW Chair Rt. Rev. Sam, there was excitement from the people. We were lucky to have hosted the team as they were shooting a documentary which is to be aired worldwide.

                                         At St. Magdalene Health Centre Lweza 

Marion was happy with the way Kajjansi had organised the exercise.

PJK SHARES WITH KAJJANSI ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF VOLUNTEERING

During the Fellowship yesterday Past President  Peter Jjemba  Kaggwa a.k.a PJK shared with the Rotary Club of Kajjansi about the issue of Volunteering in Rotary. Below is what he said  as transcribed by Rtn. Hannington Sebuliba

Definition of a volunteer

Rtn.  Annet Nannyonjo ‘Anyone does something at his/her own will without payment’.

I will give you three definitions in addition to hers.

1.       A person who offers to do something without being forced. 

2.       A person who works for an organization, but he/she is not paid for that work

3.       A person who joins the armed forces at his/her own free will.

4.       Offer to  do something without being forced or to suggest something without being asked.

The suggestion we get is that every volunteer has to do something.   Therefore, if you volunteer and say yes am a Rotarian and am a volunteer but doing nothing you are not even a volunteer. You can voluntarily join a Rotary Club but ask yourself what have I done for the club? What have you ever volunteered to do? Have you ever volunteered to help the president? Have you ever volunteered to go in a project? If you answer all questions relevant to volunteering then you are in the right place. Mr. President I would like to suggest that we take the issue of our volunteering as very serious. Many times we have taken it too lightly well what am I supposed to have done?  Am a volunteer.  He gave an example of someone who volunteers to get someone from a pit by pulling a rope but midway he/she decides to loosen the rope, that’s not a good heart of volunteering. “ Why did you to pretend to say that you are coming to volunteer to helping me? This is exactly what is happening in Rotary. We put on our Lapel Badges which tell the world that we are volunteers.  We belong to this biggest voluntary organization in the whole world. Very prestigious and you never bother to ask yourself whether you have ever volunteered.

If you put yourself in the category of the Rotarian you want to be you might be shocked to see that many of us fall short of the definition of a volunteer. We have different categories of Rotarians

·         The Balloons:  In Rotary we are supposed to have fun and fellowship together, but there are those who just burst at any slightest joke. Those are the balloons. If you are becoming a balloon please check yourself. 

·         The Trailers.  These are Rotarians who want to be pulled all the time. The good thing is that,  when you are slopping they will quicken. But when you come to a hill and there’s some problem  you know what happens and am telling you this  because most presidents these days are suffering a lot  they pull and pull but some Rotarians are not coming.

·         A canoe: This is another category of Rotarians who want to be guided all the way like a canoe. You have to row, row the canoe. A canoe on the lake has to be guided please come this way, please come this way.

·         The Sub-marine: We also have Rotarians who are sub-marines. The sub-marine is always underground  but at certain occasions they come out. There are Rotarians who can come out when there’s a function. All along they have not been there but when there’s a function, you’ll see the Rotarians coming and they want to be given front seats. They want to be seen.

·         Kites:  There are Rotarians who behave like kites. They fly and fly endlessly. These don’t send apologies when they do not attend fellowship. These don’t care about others.

In  clubs and meetings there are these categories of people:

a)      Mr. & Mrs. Negative:  President says let’s do this or that and these will say “ it doesn’t work” when they ask them to give their opinions, then they will have no idea.

b)      Mr. and Mrs. Apathy:  They keep quiet in the meeting you ask them about their opinions and they keep quiet. You keep asking and they keep quiet. When the fellowship ends, they will start backbiting.  They start saying “how can so and so say like this?” They start telling outsiders yet when they were in the meeting they were keeping quiet.

c)       Mr. and Mrs. Opinionated: These think that in a meeting when their idea hasn’t been taken, then there was no meeting. They think that they know it all.  If the president doesn’t take their idea, then they will not participate. They are full of themselves.  All these make our leadership very burdened. I pity the presidents.

d)      Mr. & Mrs. I know it all: Their hands are always up even if they don’t know anything about the topic.  You ask for a report for an activity, they will be the first to raise their hands even when they never participated. They speak and speak and speak.

e)      Mr. & Mrs. Pragmatic: They listen, contribute and when someone brings an idea, they agree with that one and when another person comes with a contrary idea they will also agree with him/her.

He concluded by asking a rhetorical question “Ask not what the club has done for you, ask what you can do together for the good of the club”