JOURNEY TO KITENDE by Charter President Paul Atwine
“What we hope to do with ease, we must learn first to
do with diligence”- Samuel Johnson
On the 30th of March 2013, a group of young individuals all bound by the ideal of service set off for Kitende-Sekiwunga Community for an immunization outreach. At the time the sustainability of this project was in question for though we had the will to see it through, we were limited in both resources and experience but nonetheless we forged a head.
The young individuals then branded a provisional Club, are now a fully fledged Rotaract Club of Kampala south with 24 young professionals all dedicated to the ideal of service above self.
Much as we took off our training wheels and our mother club the Mighty Rotary Club of Kampala South entrusted us with their legacy of 20 years in active service, they have watched our growth and in their own way tried to encourage us.
Five months down the road, the Kitende Sekiwunga Immunization Outreach is in full gear with over 300 children having been immunized. However this has not been done with ease but with due diligence on our part coupled with southern solidarity.
An insight into Sekiwunga;
Sekiwunga is a community deep within Kitende which is in the Southern part of Kampala. The project was proposed by our sister club The Rotary Club of Kajjansi.
The residents of Sekiwunga are a simple community that has always found the health centre in Kajjansi, the town before Kitende, inaccessible. The distance between Kajjansi Health Centre and the Sekiwunga community is about 10km.
The immunization project is a monthly project carried out every 3rd Saturday of the month which makes the 20th of July, our 5th Immunization Outreach in this community.
The project is done in partnership with Kajjansi Health Centre which avails us with the health workers and medicines to carry out the immunization. The medicine is given to us free of charge so we only pay the health workers; their superior and the resident mobilize Madam Teddy as a way of appreciation. It is about 90,000 Uganda Shillings (35$) per month and this money to date has been raised amongst club members, generous contributions from mother club and of recent a whooping One million Ugx that was offered by the Guest of honor at our Charter/Installation Night held on the 22nd of June 2013, Mr. David Nambale, the Corporation Secretary for National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
To date we have immunized over 300 children, which is a small number but yet another humble effort under the Polio plus Campaign Rotary International is advocating for in Africa. In D9200, Uganda and Ethiopia are the countries most plagued by polio so we hope more clubs will adopt immunization projects notwithstanding funding constraints.
The outreach slow but sure has been embraced by some families in the community. In order to establish more presence and get to know the families better we have adopted a system of picking up the children to bring them for de-worming after which they are returned to their mother’s, spreading out into the community to sit down with some of the families and sensitize them about Rotary and the Polio plus campaign. Without deviating, we hope to incorporate more programs like family planning forums, safe hand washing and sanitation and so on.
In our future vision, we will adopt Sekiwunga community as our village and carry out projects that have a bigger impact on the community such as water and sanitation, literacy, economic sustenance and financial literacy and so on. This will be made possible by partnerships with corporate(s), Rotary and Rotaract Clubs, the locals of Sekiwunga and twinning partnerships.
Its truly fun fellowship and service at this project and we look forward to the next one on the 20th of July 2013 to serve the Sekiwunga community. This project has the potential to grow into something much bigger and we can only pray that we gain more partners in service both from Rotary and the corporate world for a much greater impact on this community.
ATWINE PAUL
CHARTER PRESIDENT 2012-2013
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE DIRECTOR/P.R ELECT 2013-2014