When Dr Fredrick Bakandonda took over as president of the Rotary Club of Uptown Kampala on June 27, he didn’t just inherit a gavel. He inherited a blood shortage. That shortage is old news in Uganda.
For years, hospitals have struggled to keep enough safe blood on hand. Families have lost members who might have survived with a transfusion.
The new partnership with the Buganda kingdom is the latest attempt to fix a recurring problem — one that other groups have tried to solve before, with mixed results. The plan calls for six to eight donation centres across the Buganda kingdom’s traditional counties, the Amasaza. The target: 1,000 units of blood.
Those units would go to Mengo Hospital, which has long depended on irregular drives and walk-in donors. Past campaigns have often stumbled on geography.
A single collection point in Kampala can’t serve a region where rural families must travel hours to give blood. The Buganda kingdom brings something different: a network of local chiefs and community structures that can reach those areas. That is the theory, anyway.
Similar partnerships have happened before. In 2019, the Uganda Blood Transfusion Service worked with religious leaders to boost donations during the holiday season. That drive collected roughly 2,000 units over three months — a success, but one that faded once the campaign ended.
The question is whether this Rotary-Buganda deal will last longer. The club is not stopping at blood.
Starting July 25, a mega medical camp will offer immunizations, cancer screenings, maternal care, and youth health services. That camp is co-sponsored by clubs linked to the Rotary Club of Kampala South. It is a broader push, and a more expensive one.
Bakandonda put it plainly: “We cannot build strong communities without healthy people.” That line was spoken at St Anthony’s Restaurant in Nakasero, during the handover ceremony. It is a simple idea.
But executing it has always been the hard part. Previous health camps in Uganda have often suffered from poor follow-up. Patients get screened, but treatment options remain scarce.
The Rotary camp will need to connect people to actual care, not just diagnosis. The club is also looking east. Phase one of a road health camp will hit Iganga.
Phase two moves to Mbale, in partnership with the Rotaract Club of Mbale Uptown. That is a long way from Kampala.
It means logistics, fuel, and supplies — all of which have derailed past outreach efforts. Groups that promised to go rural have sometimes run out of money before reaching the second village. And then there is the environment piece.
Bakandonda said the club will push tree planting, sustainable energy education, and pollution reduction. That is a separate track, but it ties back to health.
Clean air and stable climate conditions affect disease patterns. The link is real, though it is not always the first thing people think of when they hear “blood donation.” What this partnership has that earlier efforts lacked is institutional backing. The Buganda kingdom is not a charity.
It is a traditional government with reach, credibility, and local knowledge. Rotary brings money, organization, and medical contacts. That combination has worked before in other countries — in India, Rotary clubs partnered with local governments to nearly eliminate polio.
But that took decades. This blood drive is a single year’s project.
The clock is ticking. The first camp starts July 25. The blood target is 1,000 units.
Whether that number gets met — and whether the centres stay open after the campaign ends — will tell if this is just another short-term push or something that actually changes how Uganda gets its blood.
