For years, Uganda’s blood supply has run on a fragile system. One collection point. Long distances.
Too many empty shelves. The Rotary Club of Uptown Kampala and the Buganda kingdom now aim to break that cycle with a plan that spreads donation sites across the kingdom’s traditional counties.
Six to eight centres. That is the target. Each one will sit in an Amasaza, the historical counties that still structure Buganda’s local governance.
The goal is 1,000 units of blood, with Mengo Hospital as the primary beneficiary. Mengo sits at the heart of the kingdom’s health infrastructure.
It is also a facility that has long struggled with shortages. Dr Fredrick Bakandonda laid out the vision on June 27. He had just taken over as president of the Rotary Club of Uptown Kampala.
The handover ceremony was at St Anthony’s Restaurant in Nakasero. Community health, he said, would be the club’s priority for the 2026/2027 Rotary year. His reasoning was blunt: “We cannot build strong communities without healthy people.” The blood drive is only part of a larger push.
Starting July 25, the club will launch a mega medical camp. It partners with clubs sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kampala South.
The camp will offer immunisation, maternal care, cancer screenings, and medical services for young people. That is a lot of ground to cover in a single event. Then the outreach moves east.
Bakandonda said the club is working with the Rotaract Club of Mbale Uptown. Phase one lands in Iganga.
Phase two goes to Mbale. “To extend our services to Eastern Uganda, we are also working with the Rotaract Club of Mbale Uptown to carry out a health camp on the road,” he said. Health is the headline.
But the club is also turning to the environment. Bakandonda said they will push tree planting, educate communities on sustainable energy, and encourage measures to cut pollution. That is a common pairing in Rotary projects — health and conservation linked by the same logic.
Sick environments breed sick people. This partnership fits a broader pattern.
Across Uganda, traditional institutions are stepping into gaps left by overstretched public services. The Buganda kingdom already runs hospitals, schools, and agricultural programmes. Rotary clubs bring logistics, funding, and international networks.
Together, they patch holes that the state cannot always fill. The blood donation model is instructive.
Instead of asking people to travel to a single urban centre, the plan takes collection points to them. That matters in a country where transport costs can outweigh the willingness to donate. Six to eight centres may not sound like much.
But spread across the Amasaza, they cover a lot of territory. Mengo Hospital stands to gain the most. It is a referral facility that serves a wide population.
Blood shortages there have real consequences — postponed surgeries, maternal deaths, anaemic children left untreated. A steady supply of 1,000 units changes that calculus.
Bakandonda’s emphasis on community health is not new for Rotary. The organisation has long prioritised disease prevention and maternal health. But the scale of this partnership is unusual.
Tying a blood drive to a kingdom’s administrative structure gives it reach that a standalone club campaign would lack. The July 25 camp will test the model.
If it works, the same approach could spread to other regions. The Eastern Uganda plan suggests that is exactly what the club intends.
