Meet Rtn. ‘Picasa’

By Hannington Sebuliba
When Rtn. Charles Baganja  invited me to come to Dreams Guest House to give a talk on newspapaer production, little did I know that it was my first step to becoming a member of this great Club.

The year was 2006, and the president then was Kibirango. I happened to give a moving talk and after that talk I was Invited to joing the Rotary Club of Kajjansi. Rtn. Baganja told me that this club lacked someone of my profession. I couldn’t figure out how a broke person like me would be useful to Rotary.

All along I had the belief that Rotary was a club for the rich who had money to waste on constructing bus shelters and giving water tanks to schools.

A year later I decided to start attending the Wednesday fellowships at Dreams Guest House. Rtn. Joyce Magala requested me to assist her on the Brick bulletin. By then it was so small that it used to be like a brochure. I later on ventured into producing it on 4 pages of A5. It started as a black and white bulletin, but later on we turned to colour.

For the three years I have been in Rotary, I have been able to capture most of the events through the lens of the camera. It is not always easy to take those moments in history because all the time you have to find a vantage point to take that photo that will  tell a story for generations to come.

I have taken a number of shots every time we visited our pojects and even during fellowships. These photos have not remained on my computer but I have shared them online, on ou picasa web album, our blog and even in our weekly bulletin the Brick.

I focus more on capturing moments and the little details that might otherwise go unnoticed. I am more concerned with making images that tell the story of the  event.

When I was invited to join Rotary, I was told that my services would be much in needed in the club. I first wondered how this would benefit the Club since I’m no longer an active journalist  but I sat down and thought about my contribution to the club. I finally discovered that I would be of help in designing the brick bulletin and also taking photos of the club events.

In my first year, I was shocked to be named the Rotarian of the Year 2010/11 because of the works I had done for promoting our club on picasa, web blog, Youtube and even the Brick Bulletin.

My job was to ensure that every bulletin that came out had a photo that was an action photo and very relevant to the stories in that bulletin.

It was at this time that I decided to open a picasa web album for the Rotary Club of Kajjansi, because our achives were lacking very important pictures. This is how I got the name picasa.

I worked with all my heart, serving above self and managed to take the club beyond Kajjansi on the worldwide web.
In the Rotary year 2010/11, I was awarded the Rotarian of the year award by Presido John Mary Luberenga.

I have been able to take a number of photos for the club service projects and posted them on the internet. The  only unfortunate bit is that I am in very few pictures of the club activities.

PAG Bob Waggwa Nsibirwa Inducts Rtn. Hannington

I can proudly say that during my tenure of office as Bulletin officer and as Public Relations Director, I have been able to create a web blog for the club, posted a number of youtube videos on the net, written articles and taken thousands of photos for the club activities. I have also been invited to a number of Rotary Clubs to give  a talk simply because of the visibility of the Rotary Club of Kajjansi. Lastly I was able to re-brand the Rotary Club of Kajjansi by re-designing the club logo to give it  a new look.

 I don’t think I would manage all these on my own but due to the team spirit and encouragement given to me by the rest of the members. I want to thank PP Karoli for fishing me, my mentor Rtn. Rev. Grace Ssentongo, past presidents, and most of all PP Peace Taremwa who offered to pay for my District and International fees for this past year. May the Almighty reward you so much.

To the rest of the members I thank you for the encouragement.