Category: News

{{Police in Ngoma district is holding seven men suspected of illegally engaging in distillation of illicit brew.}}

During an operation Police seized distillation tools and fermentation products. Over 240 litres of by-products used to distil kanyanga were destroyed.

The suspects whose names have been withheld are being detained at Sake Police station pending Investigation.

They were arrested on Sunday and are being held at Sake Police Station.

They are said to have distilled about 45 Litres of potent gin locally known as Kanyanga.

Supt Benoit Nsengiyumva, Eastern Region police spokesman, said the suspects were arrested after a joint operation by Police, Rwanda Defence Forces and local council leaders of Kigesi and Shyembe cells.

{{Thirty Teacher Training College (TTC) students read their own original stories to neighboring primary school students at Academie de la Salle in Byumba on Friday afternoon. }}

They also encouraged the primary students to read and write their own stories.

At the event, organized by VSO volunteer Dorothy Nelson, primary school students crowded together in small circles to listen to the TTC students’ stories.

TTC students asked the children questions about the story before, during, and after reading to engage them in the story.

“It is my hope that these stories will inspire these primary students to write their own stories,” says Nelson.

TTC students wrote these stories in July at a writer’s workshop facilitated by VSO as part of the USAID-funded Literacy, Language, and Learning (L3) Initiative. For some, it was the first time they had ever written a story.

“This writer’s workshop can stimulate our hidden talents,” says TTC student Themistocles Abayisaba, who has continued writing stories after the workshop’s completion.

According to L3’s Technical Director Norma Evans, TTC students should be encouraged to use stories in their classrooms when they become teachers.

“Children need constant exposure to written content to learn to read,” she says. “Stories show students that reading is meaningful, that it has a purpose, and it gets students interested in reading.”

Not only is reading in the classroom essential, but so is writing. Evans also says that even from Primary 1 students should have opportunities for authentic writing—not merely copying from the board, but writing to express themselves.

“Writing helps students figure out which letters represent the individual sounds they hear in words.” Evans says. “This helps them to be better readers.”

The Kigali Institute of Education, with support from the L3 initiative, is revising TTC curricula to include a focus on writing and the importance of story in the classroom.

VSO volunteers with specialization in literacy will support the implementation of the new curricula and will also organize activities such as writer’s workshops and writing competitions at the TTCs to encourage a culture of reading and writing.

Jean Bosco Bigirimana, principal of TTC Byumba, is pleased with this focus on story. “This is the beginning. This is your first story,” he told the TTC students at Friday’s event.

“Write many stories. Use the stories to teach your pupils when you leave school to be teachers.”

{{The DRC government has instituted new changes that will regulate the opening and closing of its borders with Rwanda.}}

The Borders have been open 24hrs daily. But with the new changes, the Borders will always open at 6AM and close at 6PM.

In a statement released Sunday, October 21, the governor of North Kivu, Julien Paluku evokes a “redevelopment” opening hours and closing the borders between Goma and Gisenyi.

The border of the Great and Little gates open now 06hoo morning and close at 18hoo local.

However,the statement does not explain the reasons for the decision, merely indicating that the measure is “in pursuance of instructions from the Government dated 19 October 2012”.

Congolese Civil society in North Kivu welcomed the decision. Their spokesman, Omar Kavota, considers that the measure could help to further secure the city of Goma.

Rwandan authorities have not yet responded to this measure.

{{The Finnish Supreme Court has rejected a petition for leave of appeal in the so-called Rwanda genocide case. }}

The decision means Francois Barzaramba, a former Rwandan preacher convicted of genocide in his country will serve the life sentence imposed on him.

Bazaramba was convicted by a court in Porvoo in 2010 and given a life sentence. The District Court found he had been guilty of genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

He was sentenced after a five-year trial that included hearings in Africa. It was the first genocide trial ever in the Nordic region.

Bazaramba appealed his sentence to the Helsinki Appeals Court. However, the court upheld the sentence in a decision given last March.

His defence counsel announced that an appeal will be filed with the UN’s Committee Against Torture and an appeal is also being consider to the European Court of Human Rights.

{{Initiated in June 2012, the LAND Project seeks to strengthen the resilience of Rwandan citizens, communities and institutions and their ability to adapt to land-related economic, environmental and social change.}}

Building the capacity of Rwandan institutions to produce high quality, evidence based research on land is a critical part of reaching this goal.

Solid, empirical research is fundamental to the identification of needed policy changes in the land sector and also to validate policies and laws that are already contributing to stronger citizen resilience and improved livelihoods.

From September 24th to 26th, the LAND Project held a multi-stakeholder workshop to identify key, policy-relevant research priorities on land.

Drawing from a list of 58 research themes submitted in advance of the workshop, participants collaborated to distill this down to three research priorities that would receive LAND Project support during the first year:

{{1. Inheritance and succession law and practice in relation to land rights: A gender perspective;

2. Land use consolidation: environmental and socio-economic impacts, and

3. Assessment of the determinant factors of land market value. }}

Subsequently, LAND Project sought the views of several GoRs institutions whose mandates intersect with these research priorities to help inform that development of draft technical Terms of Reference for each theme.

This RFC seeks to elicit comments from all interested parties on the draft Terms of Reference developed by the LAND Project and informed by the views of key policy-making institutions.

Comments will be taken into consideration in finalizing the TORs for incorporation into a formal Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

If you are interested in receiving a copy of one or more of the draft TORs for the themes above, please send a request to LAND Project Senior Research Advisor, Alfred Bizoza at abizoza@land-project.org.

Comments on the draft Terms of Reference must be received no later than 16h30 on Friday, 26th October.

They should be sent via email to the attention of the LAND Project Chief of Party, Anna Knox, at: aknox@land-project.org and aknoxcaula@yahoo.com.

Comments received after this deadline will not be considered.

The LAND Project will not respond to questions about the tender. Please note that this is NOT a request for submission of proposals.

Any proposals sent to the LAND Project prior to issuance of an RFP will not be considered.