Vocational Month with Rotaract Club of Bukoto

           “The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves” - Logan Pearsall Smith

For the first time in history, the vocational service month was celebrated this January as opposed to October. The month focused on the second avenue of service in Rotary; Vocational Service. The vocational month reminded us of a few aspects in service; first and foremost the  adherence to, and promotion of ethical standards in all occupations; including fair treatment of employers, employees, associates, competitors and the public is very important. Secondly the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, not just those that are pursued by Rotarians and thirdly the contribution of your vocational talents to solving the problems of society and meeting the needs of the community. The icing to the cake was the awarding of several individuals by Rotarians and Rotaractors for their exceptional contributions to the community.

The Vocational Month saw Ann Katuregye receive the prestigious Vocational Service Award from the Rotaract Club of Bukoto. Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause to this lady who has transformed children from different walks of life.
One evening as Ann watched news on UBC TV she learnt of the plight of a young defiled mother from Buwenge in Jinja seeking support to treat her deformed little child. She was compelled to contact them and canvass for funds to get the child treated. A step that changed her life to this very day. This young girl was born deformed with a nasal bridge swelling childhood. With the help of Uganda Network for empowerment of the marginalized children and youth MEMACY-UGANDA, Essezza was picked from her home and admitted at Mulago Hospital and craniotomy surgery was done successfully.

After this successful story, many children started coming in for help with many different deformities. It is from this that Anne started a foundation after Esezza to help children and people with such challenges all over the country. Many children living in poverty stricken areas are victims of such deformities and cannot afford to go for surgery to correct these deformities yet in some cases they are cancerous.

To see this, Ann started Esezza Foundation (yet to be registered) a Foundation through which she has been able to reach out to children across the country. Esezza foundation gets its name from one of the children, Esezza orphaned at a tender age by her parents and left in the hands of her grandmother. It is from the grandmother that Esezza was picked, and although other children have gone back to their homes after their operations, Esezza has become part of Ann’s home. Through this foundation, she has a goal of offering children suffering from life threatening health condition and devotions hope.
Ann is a 56 year old woman born in Rukungiri, widowed with three biological children. She is an HIV activist and has worked with Joint Clinical Research Center where she worked closely with defiled girls and mothers. Four years down the road, she has taken care of and overseen successful treatment and surgeries on approximately 30 children. Her home has been opened to children with all conditions; tumors, cancer, hydrocephalus, extreme skin disorders, fistula, mention it.
Ann is passionate about children and dreams to see all children have a future despite differences in health and livelihoods. And moving on, Ann plans to register her foundation, construct a Foundation home and seek partnerships with foreign or local NGOs and hospitals.

Ann’s extraordinary and exceptional contribution touched the hearts of very many people and in addition to the award, shs. 240, 000 was donated by Rotaractors, Rotarians and Guests present during that fellowship and handed over to Ann to assist her foundation. The Rotaract club of Bukoto also looks forward to paying a visit to Esseza Foundation Home to extend more support in that regard.

As Rotaractors and Rotarians, we do things voluntarily because we have a motive to do so. When that motivation is depleted, no amount of force, productivity techniques and apps, can make any of us perform, at least not at your highest levels. Inspiration is one of the best motivators. And while you can certainly draw inspiration from a variety of sources around you such as people, nature, books and magazines, it is not that easy to get your daily dose when you work in a traditional setting such as an office, or even from your home. If you are surrounded by nature and you can take long walks and admire the beauty around you every day, that would be great, but few people live in such a setting, or have the time. So what can you do to get inspired on a consistent basis? It is such inspirational stories and people like Ann Katuregye that keep us motivated and fulfilling our obligation of service above self.

Message from Sharifa,

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s with immense gratitude to God Almighty that I have come this far as President of the Rotaractclub of Bukoto. As you are aware, my tenure as President comes to a close on 30th June, 2016 and in compliance with the provisions of the Rotary leadership, I am required by law to handover the power of President to another person who will occupy the seat.

For me it’s been a very interesting time working with all members of the Rotaract club of Bukoto and I have learnt that,the difference between success and failure is a great team. No matter how smart, talented, driven or passionate, as a leader, your success depends on your ability to build and inspire a team.Each club member’s commitment to a group effort strengthened our team work and the ability to work together.

Since 1st July, 2015 when I assumed office, it has been a learningexperience about the capacities, talents and dispositions of my club members. In the course of offering the leadership we enjoyed the good times and also experienced challenges and frustrations as a team, we have worked closely to achieve the set objectives throughout this Rotary year. We have successfully held weekly developmental and professionally building fellowship meetings, improved the quality of our membership, held a successful swimming gala fundraiser, contributed $400 towards the Rotary Foundation and acquired a Paul Harris Fellow.

In pursuit of fulfilling the third goal of Rotaract: that emphasizes the requirement to address the needs and concerns of the community and our world, the Rotaract club of Bukoto carried out a number of projects. The most popular of all annual Kabutemba literacy project which entailed donation of 30 desks, 6 blackboards, provision of scholastic materials to the students of Kabutemba Infant school,  provision of food stuffs, basic needs and payment of school fees for 3 orphans, a medical camp that treated over 700 people.  This project was successful with great appreciation and gratitude going to Lamudi Uganda that sponsored the swimming gala from which we raised money towards the project and other contributions from PDG Tusubira, his Ann Vice Country Chair Dorcas Tusubira and AG Mike Sebalu.

Second in line was the visit to Essezza Foundation home based in Magere, Gayaza which takes care of marginalized children and youth with physical and facial deformities. The club not only recognized the founder of this home Ms Anne Katuregyefor her humanitarian contribution by awarding her the Vocational award 2015/2016, but also went ahead to support the home through provision of food stuffs, basic needs and purchaseof two sawing machines to develop their tailoring skills for future income generation.

Thirdly the Rotaract club of Bukoto alongside the Rotary club of Bukoto carried out a joint Rotary Family Health Day in October in Mulimira zone in Bukoto suburbs where services on HIV/AID testing, Cancer screening and sensitization, de-worming, immunization, hand washing sensitization, malaria treatment were offered.

Additionally during this Rotary year, other than only having a Mwekuume joint Installation the three Presidents of the Mwekuume Fraternity embarked on carrying out more engaging Mwekuume joint activities. These include; Mwekuume Joint In-house Training, 3 Mwekuume Joint fellowships hosted by each of the clubs, first Mwekuume Vocational Tour at NWSC GgabaPlant and  above all the Mwekuume Joint On-line Hand washing campaign.

Me and my board are handing over the office of President of the Rotaract club of Bukoto with a great sense of fulfillment based on our modest accomplishments at the recently concluded D9211 District Conference & Assembly and Rotaract Country Awards as ; Most Outstanding club in 9211, Most Outstanding Rotaract- Rotary activity in D9211, Most Outstanding Professional and Leadership Development club in D9211, Rotaract Award for Best Performing club in D9211 and  Professional and Leadership Enhancement Award respectively . Surely we did not take Rotaract club of Bukoto to the enviable and lofty heights as we desired and worked rigorously to attain. But certainly we have laid a solid foundation for growth of our club which I believe the succeeding administration will leverage on.

Lastly I congratulate all World Class Presidents that have served this Rotary year with the main goal of being a gift to the world and wish my President Elect Solomon Baguma a great year of  Rotary serving Humanity.

Yours truly 

Sharifa Nanziri

President 2015/2016

Rotaract club of Bukoto 

                                       PROVING YOUR WORTH AS A WOMAN

I give great praise to the Almighty God who created a woman. You must agree with me that a woman is nature’s most beautiful creature regardless of the race, religion, origin, level of education and intellectual understanding.

Without going any further into the religious perspective of this, I want to zero down to the gist of the matter, a woman’s worth. Through the recent world evolution, a woman’s worth has as well evolved to a level that we term as woman emancipation. Question is, “Is a woman’s capabilities, growth and development in the society being valued to optimum despite the existence of woman emancipation?” Take a second and think about it and personally, this is how I see it.

Whatever a woman does, she must do twice as well as a man to be thought half as good. Therefore because you are a woman you must make unusual efforts to succeed. If you fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.”

Despite a woman’s beautiful nature, I believe that a woman should be valued for her brains rather than her physical appearance. Many women’s careers have been crumbled, crashed and stepped on by people in superior positions as a failure to comply with unprofessional advances towards them and at the end of the day; they drop out of the race of becoming one of the next best successful persons. 

It takes a woman with great determination, self esteem and great principles to manoeuvre through such hindrances. This is when you see the likes of Hillary Clinton, emerging and rising up as the few successful ones. Have you ever wondered what they have had to endure to get there, how much they have had to prove their worth, how they still have to prove their capability everyday to those they serve?

I applaud Rotary for giving women an equal opportunity to lead and serve their communities as well as men. If we continue to have very many organisations like this, am sure that we shall be moving towards the right direction of gender equality.

President Sharifa

                              What you can do during this Rotary Vocational Month

I congratulate you all upon the successful completion of the previous calendar year 2015 but more specifically in Rotary, I congratulate you upon the completion of the first half of the Rotary year 2015/2016. For the first time in history, the vocational service month will be celebrated this January as opposed to the previously celebrated in October. Allow me share with you more about this month which  focuses on the second avenue of service in Rotary: First and foremost within this month, the  adherence to and promotion of the highest ethical standards in all occupations, including fair treatment of employers, employees, associates, competitors, and the public is very important. Secondly the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, not just those that are pursued by Rotarians and thirdly the contribution of your vocational talents to solving the problems of society and meeting the needs of the community.

During January, Rotarians are encouraged to focus on this important avenue of Rotary service. Discussions on vocational service can lead to projects that not only develop the ethical consciousness and vocational skills of Rotarians but also the talents within their communities. Vocational Service Month is an opportunity to begin year-long vocational service activities, ranging from Rotary discussions to awards to community projects. Following are some suggested activities to undertake during Vocational Service Month:

Devote a meeting in January to examine the second Avenue of Service, including The Four-Way Test and The Declaration of Rotarians in Business and Professions. After expanding members' awareness, solicit their input in planning projects for the remainder of the year.

Introduce a "mini-classifications talk" series in which each member gives a five-minute talk on his or her vocation. Schedule one speaker for the beginning of each meeting until everyone has made a presentation. The purpose of these talks is to promote vocational awareness among Rotarians and help them recognize the worthiness of all useful occupations.

Present a vocational award to someone in the community who has exemplified outstanding professional achievement while maintaining very high ethical standards. Promote the presentation within the community, and consider making it an annual event.

Invite experts to give a presentation on the vocational needs of the community and develop a project in response to those needs. Possible projects could focus on developing character, providing career information to youth, mentoring small businesses, or organizing workshops that provide employees with new skills.

We have got less than two weeks to the end of this Vocational month, the big question is “What have you done to honor it?” With the above tips, I encourage you all to implement at least one to commemorate every vocational month. 

Sharifa Nanziri

President Rotaract club of Bukoto