Rotarians Gary Christmas, Tim Kelley, Christopher Cox, Matt Barth, and Tom Evans gathered at Carbon Nation Brewing for the first “Riverside Jams” featuring Riverside’s best live Ukulele music!

This week, we were joined by Dr. Tim Gutierrez, Associate Professor of Sociology, who shared his experience teaching incarcerated youth in Riverside County. Most of his students have already earned their High School Diploma or GED and are now working toward their Associate’s Degree.

Despite the challenges of their circumstances, Tim described his students as engaged, curious, and genuinely excited to learn. Many are seizing this opportunity to reshape their futures, and it shows in how actively they participate and how eager they are to dig into the material.

Programs like this remind us of the power of education to open doors, even in the most difficult circumstances.  Tim’s dedication to this work is a big part of what makes it succeed.

We also heard from Nathan Hinckley who is embarking on a project to restore the Tortoise Enclosures at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert.

Riverside East Rotary is proud to share that Toilets 4 Life Phase II has launched in Bugiri Municipality, Uganda. Five modern sanitation facilities are now serving schools, markets, and public spaces across the municipality, backed by two purpose-bought trucks and a wastewater treatment technology new to the district.

Phase II is funded through Global Grant #2569338, a $206,248 partnership between the Rotary Club of Bugiri Municipality (District 9213) and Riverside East Rotary District 5330, and Rotary International.

Why Bugiri

Bugiri Municipality is home to roughly 45,650 people. Before this work began, 76% of them had no access to safe water, and the entire municipality was served by three public pit latrines, two of which no longer worked. There is no municipal sewage system. The consequences show up as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery, and they fall hardest on women, girls, and children under five.

Phase I of Toilets 4 Life began addressing this in 2023 and Phase II builds on it.

What Phase II built

Five sanitation facilities, at:

• Bugubo Primary School
• Nabukalu Market
• ITT Vocational Training Centre
• Bugiri Bus Park
• Kireka-Ndifakulya community

Each facility includes six stances (two for women, two for men, one for persons with disabilities, and one urinal), along with two shower units, tap-water connections, and handwashing stations.

Two trucks, both already in weekly service:

• A 10,000-litre cesspool emptier (Reg. UA 375BP), which empties school and public toilets and carries the waste for proper disposal.
• An ISUZU FORWARD garbage collection truck (Reg. UA 018DP), now running weekly refuse collection across Bugiri Municipal Council, with communities loading the garbage themselves as their contribution to the project.

Two Aquonic wastewater treatment tanks, purchased in Bangkok, Thailand and shipped to Uganda. Rather than simply storing waste until a truck can collect it, these tanks treat wastewater on site, a technology not previously available in the municipality.

More than construction

Training. Twenty-five WASH school committee members, facility cleaners, and garbage and cesspool staff completed a two-day hygiene, sanitation and wastewater management course in December 2025. A further 20 participants were trained specifically on Aquonic tank operation and maintenance by Attawut Kumkronng of SCGC Thailand, working alongside ITT Vocational Training Centre.

The curriculum also included WASH committee roles and responsibilities, the relationship between water, sanitation and waterborne infection, menstrual hygiene management, solid waste collection and disposal, and Uganda’s sanitation regulatory framework.

Community ownership. Community adoption meetings were held on 10 January 2026, and School WASH Committees have been established and trained at every site. Hygiene education programs are running across all beneficiary schools.

Getting the word out. A radio talk show on Eastern Voice Radio in Bugiri brought the project to the wider community, with the Mayor’s representative Mr. Mapesa Ayub taking part alongside visiting Rotarians.

Supporting Organizations

Rotary Club of Bugiri Municipality hosts the grant, under President Nabba Charles and Charter President Proscovia Biryeri. Jaffer Bajja Shaban serves as project administrator and has driven implementation and reporting throughout, as he did in Phase I.

ITT-Africa School of Health Science, Technology and Innovation is the cooperating organization, leading community mobilization, training delivery, and reporting.

Riverside East Rotary is the international sponsor. Club member Rtn. Zubair Bakubye travelled to Uganda, addressed the community adoption meetings, took part in the radio talk show, and helped facilitate the Aquonic tank training.

Rotary Club of Murrieta sent Rtn. Nancy Young, Rtn. Doreen Tate, and Rtn. Mickie Evans, who travelled to Bugiri and facilitated the January community meetings and the radio broadcast.

Rotary Club of Jinja has mentored the Rotary Club of Bugiri Municipality since its founding, with Rtn. Petronilla serving as mentor. That sustained support made a club capable of hosting a grant of this size.

From Phase I to Phase II

Phase I (Global Grant #1985875) brought $61,500 to Bugiri and delivered five basic septic toilet blocks and one 7,500-litre cesspool truck. It was hosted by the Rotary Club of Iganga and completed in 2023.

Phase II is more than three times the size, at $206,248, with larger and more inclusive facilities, a second truck for solid waste, and on-site wastewater treatment. The host club changed to Bugiri Municipality’s own Rotary club, a sign of how much local capacity has grown in three years.

Read more about the Toilets 4 Life project and its Phase I updates.

What it’s already changing

Reported results so far:

• Thousands of people directly benefiting
• Improved access to safe and dignified sanitation
• Reduced congestion and unsafe toilet use in schools
• Increased school attendance, particularly among girls
• Greater community awareness of hygiene practices
• Local ownership strengthened through active WASH Committees

The project’s goal is to reduce waterborne disease in the municipality by at least 50%.

What’s next

A cadre visit is planned, and District 5330 is exploring a Vocational Training Team (VTT) to Bugiri, an opportunity to deepen the technical partnership well beyond the life of the grant.

Two things learned during Phase II are shaping what comes after. Menstrual hygiene bins were not in the original budget but proved essential, and were provided anyway. And Bugiri’s sludge treatment capacity has become the limiting factor: the municipality currently relies on a lagoon originally built to serve Bugiri Hospital, which is not sized for municipal demand and is approaching capacity. The Municipal Council has requested a dedicated lagoon, and without one, the long-term sustainability of the sanitation system is at risk.

Thank you

The Rotary Club of Bugiri Municipality has expressed its gratitude to The Rotary Foundation, and to the clubs and districts whose funding and technical support made Phase II possible. Riverside East Rotary is grateful in turn to everyone who has supported Toilets 4 Life across both phases.

Launch day

The completed facilities

Video from the launch

Project presentation

The full Phase II project presentation, compiled by project administrator Jaffer Bajja Shaban, is available here: Toilets for Life Phase II Project Presentation (PDF).

We were honored to host Todd S. Jenkins, founder of LA Kings Sled Hockey, as our guest speaker. Todd shared the story of how a search for an adaptive sport for his son Nick — born with Spina Bifida — led him and his wife Christie to launch Southern California’s first sled hockey program back in 2013. What started as a small grassroots effort has since become the official Los Angeles Kings Sled Hockey program, giving disabled kids and adults across the region the chance to play competitive, adaptive ice hockey.

Todd talked about the team’s growth, the volunteers and donors who keep it running, and the powerful impact the sport has had on athletes’ confidence, community, and quality of life — including their first championship win.

Thank you, Todd, for sharing your story and the incredible work you’re doing! To learn more or support the team, visit lakingssledhockey.com.

We also had the chance to welcome back Albert Carillo.  Albert was previously a member of Riverside East Rotary and recently re-joined.  We’re excited to have him aboard!

Our club welcomed Jennifer Contreras, Community Engagement Specialist at Ontario International Airport, this past Wednesday. She gave us an update on the airport’s continued growth, including its 10th anniversary of local control this November, several new nonstop routes launching this year (Honolulu and Chicago O’Hare among them), and record passenger numbers expected this summer. Thanks, Jennifer, for the great update on our hometown airport!