By Tina Wamala, Charter Member & Charter Public Image Director of Rotary Club of Uptown Kampala
When we chartered the Rotary Club of Uptown Kampala, I knew I was signing up for service. What I did not fully grasp then was that I was also signing up for a front row seat to transformation. My own, our club’s, and the communities we touch.
Serving as the Charter Public Image Director has been one of the greatest honours of my life. Public Image is often mistaken for just photos and posters. In reality, it is stewardship. It is the responsibility to see the heart of our work clearly and translate it for the world with honesty, creativity, and care. Every frame, every caption, every story we share is a bridge between a mother at a polio vaccination drive and a donor across the globe. It is how a quiet act of service becomes a ripple that inspires another.
I came into this role with a phone, a passion for storytelling, and a belief that Rotary’s impact deserves to be felt, not just reported. The work quickly taught me to look for the moment within the moment. A child flexing his arm after his polio dose, the look of hope stays with you for a lifetime. A young chess player opening a new textbook we donated to their club, eyes wide at the possibilities on each page. A market woman in Ntinda taking notes during our financial literacy training, later telling us she opened her first savings account that week. These are not just content. They are evidence of dignity restored and futures rewritten.
Curating our club’s voice has stretched me. I have had to sharpen my writing and learn how to report on the impact we make. How do we tell stories without exploiting pain? How do we celebrate beneficiaries without reducing them to their need? Rotary’s public image standards became my compass. They taught me that respect must lead the lens. That consent matters. That impact is best told when the community holds the mic. Today, our social pages do not just show what we did. They show who we became together during our polio vaccination drive or delivering scholastic materials to the chess club, and after long but fulfilling financial literacy sessions.
The magic has also been in our fellowships. Friday evenings have became my university. One week we were learning about peace, to debating climate action particularly plastic pollution. We have covered entrepreneurship, peacebuilding, and governance. Each speaker expanded my world. Each conversation challenged my assumptions. Through Rotary I now understand that Public image is about policy, partnerships, and the power of listening.
But the deepest learning has been human. Rotary gave me colleagues and left me with family. I have seen people give back to the community – whether that’s kneeling to mark a child’s finger at a polio drive, and young members patiently explain budgeting to a grandmother in Ntinda. We disagree, we debate, and then we show up for each other. That is family.
Our recent showing at #DISCON101 brought this home for me. Four awards, including Best Project Supporting Peace & Conflict Resolution, DG’s Family of Rotary Award, 2nd Runner-Up for Public Image, and an Excellence Award for our Charter President. I am not just proud of the trophies. I was proud of the Friday nights that built them. The stories we told bravely. The members who said yes again and again.
If you asked me what Rotary is, I would no longer start with meetings or bylaws. I would say this: Rotary is impact you can touch, purpose you can share, and family you can lean on. It is a place where your skills meet the world’s needs, and where the world, in turn, teaches you who you are.
To anyone considering Rotary, especially young professionals wondering if there is space for your voice – yes there is. Bring your creativity. Bring your questions. Bring your whole self. We need communicators, coders, farmers, artists, accountants, and dreamers. Public Image taught me that every skill has a service translation.
To DG Geoffrey Martin Kitakule and District 9213, thank you for seeing our work and affirming it. To my club, Rotary Club of Uptown Kampala, thank you for trusting me with our story. You gave me a title, but you also gave me a tribe.
I joined to serve. I stay because I belong. And through every post, every project, every friendship, I have learned that positive change is not a solo act. It is a community of people who decide, week after week, that someone else’s dignity is worth their time.
I am delighted to be one of them.
Through My Lens: Service, Stories, and the Family I Found in Rotary
