The Rotary club of Jinja was chartered on 16th November 1964, being the 3rd Rotary Club in Uganda after Kampala Rotary Club which was chartered in 1957 and Rotary Club of Mbale which was chartered on 28th May 1964.
The charter president was late Sylvester Wanje for the Rotary years 1964/65 and 1965/66.
The club was mainly dominated by Indians until 1971 when they were expelled from Uganda by late President Iddi Amin. This affected the Club membership it was far then worsened when Rotary in Uganda was considered to be an agent of the colonialists by president Iddi-Amin.
Rotarian Wanje was greatly involved in keeping the club running during those bad years of the 1970 that he was again voted as Rotarian President from Rotary year 1972/73 up to 1975/76. Membership was as low as 7 members and yet at that time a club was to have a minimum of 25 members. So Rotary International exempted the club from the minimum membership of 25 and payment of Rotary international dues.
After the downfall of Iddi-Amin from 1978, the Club grew steadily in membership and involvement in Rotary Club Activities.
At that time it was in District 9200 comprising of 9 countries namely Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Eretria, Mauritius, Re-Union and Seychelles, later and it was placed in District 9214 comprising of Tanzania and Uganda. And currently it remained in District 9124 after the creation of two Districts in Uganda and Tanzania. So some Uganda Clubs are in District 9213 and others like ours remained in District 9214.
While in District 9200, the Club won the attendance trophy together with others for a member of years. This is no longer the case so the club has to find out what has happened that we no longer win trophies as we used to do.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, unlike the present, attending Club activities and paying R.I dues were ………….. and smartness with a Rotary lapel pin were strictly observed.
In case one missed a meeting he had to make up in another Club, report with attendance card and at every end of the month individual attendance percentage was displayed time keeping and management was strictly followed that meetings started at 6:00pm and ended by 7:00pm.
Club membership rose up to an average of 35 members as to the current average of 70 members.
There were no women in Rotary until 1989 when Rotary International council of Legislation voted to admit women in Rotary. In our Club the first Women Rotarians were Deborah Kabaweza currently working with Bank of Uganda, Ms Eva Mbabazi who is out of the country, followed by Mrs Audrey Kauki Business lady in Kampala then Rotarian Petronela Lujwala who joined from the Rotary Club of Iganga where she was the charter president and the first woman president of our club during the Rotary year 2010-2011, followed by Rotarian Rosemary Namate 2015-2016, Rotarian Dr. Susan Kikira 2018-2019. Rotarian Margret Nampina 2019-202u0 and Rotarian Josephine Bichachi 2021-2022. The Club has sponsored 7 Rotary Clubs namely source of the Nile, Njeru, Gulu, Bagiri, Iganga, Busia and Jinja City.
2 Rotaract Clubs of Jinja and Jinja school of Nursing and Midwifery and 15 interact Clubs from the secondary school within our area of Jurisdiction.
The club has been very active in improving quality of life in the community by carrying out various activities namely:
- Provision of automatic standby Generator to Nyenga Hospital.
- Provision of science apparatus to secondary schools.
- Distribution of New and used text books to both secondary and primary schools
- Provision of Desks to schools
- Provision of Roofing from Streets to schools
- Protection of over 160 spring wells
- Sinking bore holes for schools
- Construction and running the home of the blind, Balitwegomba at Spire road primary school.
- Construction of pit-latrine for primary schools
- Paying school fees for disadvantaged children
- Conducting Rotary Family Health errant in various places
As a family get together, we used to have goat roasting at the source of the Nile every 1st January each year. This has now been replaced by the Rotary Gift exchange.
Rotary dues was also not easy to pay during the 1980s and early 1990s but a book was introduced which enabled members to pay whatever they had during the Wednesday meeting and by the end of the year people were paid up.
For every presentation, one had to make a joke that was below the belt but with time, people went above the belt and this died out naturally.
With the establishment of the past presidents council to guide the smooth running of the club in accordance to the rules and regulations of Rotary International. The club has excelled with interesting weekly meetings organized by Buddy groups has attracted high turn up every Wednesdayp
