According to figures, 630 teens were impregnated in nine months of 2019 raising the number to 3035 within three years.
This was revealed yesterday in an executive meeting organized by the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion bringing together leaders of all district in Western Province.
The mayor of Rubavu district, Gilbert Habyarimana attributed the numbers to domestic conflicts and urban migration.
“These cases are attributed to domestic conflicts and youth’s growing number migrating to town,” he said.
Habyarimana further stated that the latter is additional to inadequate knowledge on reproductive health.
He, however, explained that they have strengthened measures against the issue with an emphasis on teaching reproductive health among schools.
Western Province Governor, Alphonse Munyantwari said they are going to increase awareness on reproductive health and hold accountable those who impregnate teens.
Among others, Nyabihu district has 418 impregnated teens while Rutsiro has 404. Western province records 2873 impregnated teens out of 15 696 countrywide.
The partnership will build critical links between young job-seekers and employers, work with employers to develop skills training programs for young employees, and identify skills gaps in Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality sector.
Hanga Ahazaza is a US$50 million initiative from the Mastercard Foundation to create work opportunities for 30,000 Rwandan youth over five years.
Hanga Ahazaza, meaning “create the future”, is a consortium of 12 partners from the education, development, and private sectors.
Working together, they are supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality sector through increased access to financial services and training, and by connecting them to young people with the skills needed to be successful employees.
Since its launch in 2018, the Hanga Ahazaza initiative has enabled 2,607 Rwandan youth to access dignified and fulfilling work and supported 183 youth-owned businesses.
Commenting on the partnership, Belise Kariza, Chief Tourism Officer of the Rwanda Development Board said that the Government believes in promoting tourism and hospitality and has tirelessly supported the creation of a conducive environment for the sector to prosper and benefit the people.
She, however, observed: “We require a skilled workforce to cope with the growing trends of the industry. The Mastercard Foundation Hanga Ahazaza initiative is playing a significant role in addressing this challenge.”
Rica Rwigamba, the Acting Country Representative and Senior Program Manager of the Mastercard Foundation said: “Our partnership with the RDB is a significant step in the right direction for ensuring the success of the Hanga Ahazaza initiative and supporting young people to thrive in Rwanda’s growing tourism and hospitality sector.”
Growth in Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality sector is a key national priority and is growing at a rapid pace, with ripple growth effects in other sectors, such as agriculture and food processing.
However, challenges remain for young job-seekers and entrepreneurs, including gaps in skills development, work placement and experience, and access to financial services.
Gisele Ikuzwe, a student at Vatel Rwanda observed that hospitality is an open-door opportunity that provides youth with the skills and goals they need to thrive while at the same time contributing to Rwanda’s economic development.
“As a youth, we need to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and not only think of becoming job-seekers – you also need to have the mindset and responsibility to create jobs,” she said.
Partners collaborating in the Hanga Ahazaza initiative include Cornell University, Dalberg, partners, GIZ, GroFin, Harambee, Horwath HTL, I&M Bank Rwanda, Inkomoko, Question Coffee, and Vatel Rwanda.
{{About the Mastercard Foundation}}
The Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone can learn and prosper. The Foundation’s work is guided by its mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion for people living in poverty.
One of the largest foundations in the world, it works almost exclusively in Africa. It was created in 2006 by Mastercard International and operates independently under the governance of its own Board of Directors. The Foundation is based in Toronto, Canada.
{{About Rwanda Development Board}}
The Rwanda Development Board is responsible for tourism and conservation, as well as the entire investor experience. The Rwanda Development Board manages the tourism industry in Rwanda and ensures that the tourism and conservation goals of the Government of Rwanda are successfully implemented.
They were buried on Thursday evening at the Nyanza genocide memorial in Kicukiro district.
Information on whereabouts the 100 victims killed at the home of late genocide victim, Rwagasana was unveiled 13th September 2019.
After learning about it, children of late Rwagasana living in Europe and relatives of victims killed as they sought refuge at the home went for the search of relatives’ remains to be buried decently.
During the burial, genocide survivors expressed delight for finding remains of relatives for decent burial after 25 years.
Karambizi Carine, one of the survivors from the family of late Rwagasana thanked all relevant institutions for support in finding and exhuming the remains of the relatives. She also requested for support to hold accountable genocide perpetrators who killed relatives wandering freely across the globe.
The representative of mourning families, Eric Rutayisire asked relevant institutions to draw attention on information provided by residents.
The Minister of Justice and State Attorney General, Busingye Johnston thanked those who provided information and urged the rest to do the same.
“Firstly, I condole with relatives of victims buried today. It was mentioned that we accord decent burial to remains of victims exhumed from the home where the sought refuge but it is evident that more people lost lives there. I want the search for their remains continued,” he said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR) in Libya the majority of them are children away from their families, single mothers and families.
Rwanda signed agreements to host refugees stranded in Libya on 10th September 2019 with the African Union (AU) and UNHCR.
Rwanda committed to receiving 500 refugees at the head first of whom 66 arrived yesterday in the first batch aboard the airplane of Buraq Air.
Gashora camp previously hosted thousands of Burundian refugees since 2015 before they were relocated to other sites.
It is equipped with a playground, accommodations among other basic needs.
The camp is being upgraded to accommodate more refugees and get the status of a permanent camp.
UNHCR in Libya said that relocating these refugees will accord them dignified life following years of struggle.
Rwanda made the commitment to host refugees from Libya in 2017 following revelations that thousands of people from across Africa were stranded in the country after their failure to reach Europe and subjected to slavery.
Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Emmanuel Kayigi, the Police spokesperson for the Western region, said that Iyakaremye was arrested in Gisenyi Sector following a tip-off by local residents.
“Police responded and arrested her, red-handed, with 2000 rolls of cannabis. She said she works with another person, who traffics the narcotics from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through illegal borders,” he said.
“It is a chain of drug dealers from DRC to Rubavu and to other parts of the country; Iyakaremye was at the time of her arrest trying to send the narcotics to another dealer in Kigali. She was supposed to be paid Rwf50, 000. Law enforcement agencies are working together to track and arrest other members of the ring,” CIP Kayigi explained.
He added that illicit drugs pose a threat to the country’s future as it is mostly used by the youth that they are also among major influences for other criminal acts like theft, assault, GBV, and other child-related crimes.
CIP Kayigi commended the role of the public in breaking chains of drug dealers. He further warned of an increased crackdown on dealers and called for strengthened efforts through information sharing.
The forum hosted over 100 heads of state and world leaders from over 85 countries since it was first established in 2003 by President Lee C. Bollinger.
In his address, Kagame shared Rwanda’s home-made recipe for sustainable development.
“Exactly four years ago, the topic was how to speed up and sustain development. In Rwanda, the recipe has three main ingredients: smart policy, finding the money to put those policies into effect, and good politics.” he said.
Kagame was last at Columbia University in September 2015 where he addressed the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD).
The meeting bringing together members of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) took place on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly.
It was also attended by the President of Sierra Leone, Rtd Gen. Julius Maada Bio among other partners.
Discussions centered on the theme: ‘Advancing the campaign on the reduction of early marriage and rape in Africa’.
Central and Western parts of Africa record the highest rate of early marriages and are ranked at the second place worldwide following Southern Asia.
Child marriage costs African countries tens of billions of dollars in lost earnings and human capital, according to the World Bank report (Educating Girls and Ending Child Marriage) launched in 2018.
According to the report, more than three million (or one-third of) girls in Sub-Saharan Africa marry before their 18th birthday each year.
Today, the region has the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world. Child brides are much more likely to drop out of school and complete fewer years of education than their peers who marry later.
They are also more likely to have children at a young age, which affects their health as well as the education and health of their children.
While many African countries have achieved gender parity in primary education, the report notes that girls lag behind boys at the secondary level.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, seven out of 10 girls complete primary education, but only four out of 10 complete lower secondary schools
.
Madam Fatima Maada Bio requested to make early marriages and rape as a global concern negatively impacting the world’s development and adopt strict policies to address the issue.
The research carried out to 12 countries having half of the African population indicated that early marriage consequences incur a loss of US$ 63 billion every year to these countries.
These include Burkina Faso, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Congo, Uganda, and Zambia.
Mrs. Jeannette Kagame also attended an event to raise awareness and mobilizing stakeholders on ensuring adequate, safe and sustainable blood in Africa, especially for mothers.
During the session, Sandrine Umutoni, the Director-General of Imbuto Foundation shared Rwanda’s experience in availing safe and adequate blood, through national initiatives such as the National Centre for Blood Transfusion, blood delivery by Drones and initiatives promoting access to health for all.
Both leaders met in New York, the United States of America on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly.
Following the discussions, Dr. Hamdok expressed delight to have met with Kagame because Rwanda is an inspiring model in building peace, restoring unity, reconciliation and promoting social-economic transformation.
“I was pleased to meet Paul Kagame. Rwanda has been inspiring in its peace and reconciliation efforts as well as its development and economic growth. We discussed solidifying relations between both countries. I look forward to his plan to provide RwandAir direct flights to Sudan,” he said in a tweet.
Dr. Hamdok was recently appointed an interim leader of Sudan following power-sharing agreements that put an end to civilians’ protests.
He replaced former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a former military ousted in April after 30 years in office.
The leaders of Sudan’s pro-democracy movement and the country’s ruling military council signed the power-sharing agreement in July 2019.
The two sides held a signing ceremony in the capital, Khartoum, marking the end of three months of protests and negotiations.
Rwanda enjoys existing cordial relations with Sudan extended to peacekeeping missions in Darfur.
Figures in July 2019 indicated that Rwanda is the largest contributor to Sudan peacekeeping operations with 1126 soldiers followed Pakistan with 899 and Ethiopia with 834 soldiers.
I was pleased to meet @PaulKagame. Rwanda has been inspiring in its peace & reconciliation efforts as well as its development & economic growth. We discussed solidifying relations between both countries. I look forward to his plan to provide RwandaAir direct flights to Sudan. pic.twitter.com/WgGGGnvEQp
Simon Gicharu, founder and chairman MKU, said the entity has applied for a charge following growth in its Rwanda Campus, necessitating it to scale up operations in the country as well as the need to overcome cross-border challenges in running the institution.
He added that the institution expects to be granted a charter by Rwanda in the coming months and give it room to operate as a fully-fledged university.
The move will make the Rwanda institution autonomous and will be a boon for students who have currently have to travel to Thika to sort out administration issues as well as graduations on completion of studies.
“With the growing number of students, now at 4 000, we thought it would be wise to make MKU, Rwanda autonomous to serve them better. And the government of President Paul Kagame continues to be very supportive. We thank him for this,” he said.
Prof Gicharu spoke at a meeting with Dr. Richard Masozera the Rwandan High Commissioner to Rwanda when he paid the university a courtesy call on Tuesday 24th September 2019.
The High Commissioner had earlier been received by the MKU Vice-Chancellor Prof Stanley Waudo who noted that the Government of Rwanda had accorded MKU an enabling environment to join other private institutions of higher learning in the country.
Dr. Masozera’s visit also included a one-hour session with the Rwandan students studying at MKU’s main campus in Thika. In their presentation to the Ambassador, the Rwandan students expressed their deep appreciation to MKU for the great support so far offered to them by the University, as well as individual growth received while in Kenya. Dr. Masozera urged the Rwandan students to take full advantage of their stay at MKU by working hard on their studies.
The Minister of State in charge of Economic Planning Dr. Claudine Uwera and the Director-General of OFID. Dr. Abdulhamid Al-Khalifa signed on behalf of their institutions.
The financing will cover water supply infrastructure mostly in areas having low access. It will contribute to the construction of Kagaga and Busogwe Water Supply systems in Muhanga, Kamonyi, and Ruhango districts.
This will build 9,000 m3/day and 12 000 m3/day water treatment plant and distribution network to provide water supply services to 350,000 people of which 150,000 are in pre-urban and rural areas.
Speaking after the signing, the Minister of State in charge of Economic Planning Dr. Claudine Uwera said: “This financing is coming to support and complement Government of Rwanda efforts and commitment to achieve universal access to the water and sanitation services by 2024 as stipulated in our National Strategy for Transformation (NST). By the completion of this program (phase I and II), it is expected that the water and sanitation access will reach 81% of national coverage.”
OFID The Director-General Dr. Abdulhamid Al-Khalifa said that the project is consistent with OFID’s commitment to supporting Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation which places a strong emphasis on scaling-up investments in reliable, affordable and environmentally sustainable infrastructure.
The Rwanda Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Program aims at improving water and sanitation infrastructure in Kigali and six satellite cities.
Benefits include reducing waterborne diseases and related healthcare costs, improving living standards for nearly 1.6 million people.
The OFID has in the past approved more than US$182 million in public sector lending to Rwanda across a wide range of sectors and initiatives including energy, transport, and agriculture. Private-sector funding of US$25 million was also extended to the Bank of Kigali to expand lending to small and medium-sized businesses.
Rwanda has also benefited from OFID’s regional and national grants for emergency assistance, agricultural research, HIV/AIDS programs, and polio eradication.
