There's not much you can say about an AGM. I will send through the Agenda and Reports with the link tomorrow.
Last Week
Delight Musa Sithole gave an interesting talk about the NGO Dlala Nje based at the Ponte Centre. They sponsor a number of youth projects including a Scout Group and raise money by promoting tours, mainly by overseas tourists, to Hillbrow and other inner city areas. Interestingly enough they have recently expanded to to Cape Town.
Next Week
We need something sweet for our last official meeting of the year. I met Holly Naylor at Winex and I am fascinated to hear what made her start a nougat business.
International - Australia/Uganda
Australian Rotary clubs in Districts 9705 (ACT and NSW) and 9423 (WA), assisted by a club in Washington DC, have helped turn one Ugandan student’s dream into reality, funding 10 new bathroom cubicles at Kimaanya Secondary School to restore dignity, improve hygiene and empower more than 750 girls to learn with confidence.
For too long, mornings at BS Kimaanya Secondary School in Masaka, Uganda, began with frustration and fatigue. Hundreds of girls queued for hours at the school’s crumbling bathroom facilities, some forced to bathe in the open, their privacy and dignity stripped away. What should have been a simple daily routine became a source of exhaustion before the first lesson even began.
Thanks to the vision of Rotary Peace Fellow Emily Nabakooza and the generosity of 16 Rotary clubs across Australia and the US, this story has been rewritten. Through Project Abigail – named after a courageous student whose video plea touched hearts across the world – 10 brand-new, modern bathroom cubicles now stand at Kimaanya Secondary School, transforming the lives of more than 750 female boarding students.
“This Rotary-funded facility is more than just bathrooms,” said Emily, founder of Assisi Centre for Social Justice and Peace. “It is a space that restores confidence, promotes dignity and empowers girls to start their day ready to learn.”
A student’s dream realised
In 2023, 16-year-old Nandawula Abigail recorded a short video showing the desperate state of the school’s sanitation facilities. She spoke candidly about the daily struggle for privacy and hygiene, asking for Rotary’s help. Her message was shared at the Rotary District 9705 conference, and the response was extraordinary.
“The dilapidated state of existing bathrooms was a constant source of frustration for us,” Abigail said. “We were constantly scrambling for the limited available washing space.
This year, I will be sitting my national exams, which means I am here for my final year of high school. I am so proud to be leaving such a legacy behind. This is a life-changing intervention for all the girls that will be attending BSK in the next 20 years.”
With her national A-Level exams on the horizon, Abigail’s pride is palpable.
“We whole-heartedly thank our donors in Rotary for their determination and commitment to make this project a reality and for breaking the barriers in girls’ education through WASH initiatives in Uganda.”
Collective action, global impact
Project Abigail is part of Assisi Centre for Social Justice and Peace’s wider WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) programming, which has delivered 17 Rotary-funded interventions in just five years, including water projects, menstrual hygiene facilities, latrines and shower blocks.
Rotary’s support for the Kimaanya project came from far and wide. In Australia, the Rotary clubs of Canberra, Belconnen, Hall, Murrumbidgee, Canberra Sunrise, West Wyalong, Boorowa, Goulburn, Moruya, Milton-Ulladulla, E-Brindabella, Northam, Preston, Berry and the Rotaract Club of Canberra all rallied to the cause. In the US, the Rotary Club of Columbia Patuxent in Maryland contributed significantly. Together, through Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAOAF Project 31-2021-22 – Assisi Centre for Social Justice – Uganda), they raised more than AU$17,000 to ensure the facility could be completed to the highest standard.
For Desmond Woods, of the Rotary Club of Canberra, ACT, the project represents the best of Rotary in action.
“The WASH Facility is a way of saying to young women, ‘we see you and we understand that you have a right to dignity and respect for your needs.’ Like Emily and her Assisi team on the ground, led by Sister Grace, we in our Rotary clubs in Australia and the US are also a team. We know that through Rotary Australia World Community Service we place funds where they can be swiftly and very well used and accounted for with tangible and enduring outcomes.”
