The campaign coincided with a community work in the district that saw residents, local leaders, security officials, partners and mining companies joining efforts to create diversions for water drainage and plant anti-erosion trees.
The Mayor of Rulindo District, Judith Mukanyirigira requested residents and mining companies to scale up efforts aimed at enhancing soil conservation.
“Nowadays, we are losing large quantities of soil due to erosion. We call upon land owners to create diversions for water drainage; plant trees and grasses to prevent erosion as it washes away the top layer of the fertile soil,” she said.
Mukanyirigira also urged illegal miners to stop such activities lest they face the law.
“Illegal mining is not only illegal but also puts individuals’ lives at risk. Residents must shun such practices and engage in other income generating activities,” she added.
Some of miners also expressed willingness to take the leading step to prevent erosion and minimize threats to the natural resource upon which a large segment of the population forces meal.
“All these rivers flowing into Nyabarongo through this area have their sources at the bottom of hills with steep slopes. We are building terraces to help us catch the soil and restore the area by planting trees. Fighting erosion is not the work of an individual but rather requires collective efforts because it has adverse effects the entire community,” said Sam Ryumugabe, an employee working with a mining company dubbed Trinity Metals which runs operations in Rulindo and Rwamagana.
Residents from Ntarabana Sector where the activity was held on Saturday 27th August 2022, pledged to scale up efforts to preserve land of the hills to contain erosion.
“Previously, there were no trees planted on these hills. The rain water would often wash away the soil and submerge our crops in farmlands along the banks of River Rusiga. The river also used to wash away our soil during floods. We have owned this problem that we feel motivated to intensify efforts to preserve these hills and monitor people carrying out illegal mining in these areas,” noted Jean Marie Vianney Furaha.
These viewpoints are underscored by visually impaired persons who completed university studies and underwent massage therapy training after failing to secure a job.
The training is offered by Seeing Hands Rwanda, an non-governmental organization with a mission to improve the social and economic wellbeing of people with visual impairments and their families.
The organization meets the goals by training them on massage therapy, providing jobs and other forms of support.
Beth Gatonye, the founder and legal representative of Seeing Hands Rwanda says that the idea surfaced after realizing how many of people with visual impairments lead hard life owing to rejection by some employers regardless of their academic background.
As she says, the organization was created with a view to increase employment opportunities specifically through training to provide high quality professional massages to members of the community.
The massage therapy provided by visually impaired persons was introduced in 2017 even though many would not trust their services initially.
Despite societal bias, Gatonye sees their potential in a different perspective. If they are well trained, Gatonye attests that visually impaired persons can work as professionals that offer high quality services that some of people with normal eyes can’t do.
Considering the extent at which trained individuals offer massage therapy with great perfection, Gatonye stresses the need to break barriers hampering opportunities for persons with visual impairments to unleash their potential because ‘disability is not inability’.
She explains that most employers focus on their disability side, hence prompting them to question their productivity at work.
“When you are visually impaired, other parts of the body develop strong capacity. These persons working here are visually impaired but their hands can see. They can make money using their own hands. They are very professional in massage therapy. They are never distracted at work and use their time efficiently,” said Gatonye.
Considering their courage and professionalism at work, Gatonye observes that disability should not be an excuse for employers to reject people with visual impairments.
Josiane Mukayiranga started working with Seeing Hands Rwanda in 2019 after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Rwanda.
“I learnt that this organization receives visually impaired persons for training on massage therapy for free. I was a fresh graduate from the University of Rwanda but had not yet got a job. I acquired all the necessary techniques within six months because we learn by doing,” she revealed.
Mukayiranga says that she has learnt different techniques and continues to upgrade her skills.
They do not have regular clients but their job helps them meet basic needs in daily life.
“Many people have not yet understood the relevance of massage. We do not receive clients regularly yet increasing income has to go hand in hand with clientele. However, this profession which is not unusual helps us survive,” she affirms.
Ruth Iradukunda, is a graduate from the School of Journalism at the University of Rwanda. She joined Seeing Hands Rwanda six months ago.
Even though the profession doesn’t generate huge amounts of money, Iradukunda says, it helps them become self-reliant and meet basic needs instead of begging.
“We do not earn handsome income but the impact of what we do goes beyond meeting our basic needs to extend support to our families. However, some of our clients still have primitive understanding that visually impaired people cannot perform any activity successfully,” she discloses.
“There are people harbouring negative mindsets that people with visual impairment can’t do anything. Other parts of the body complement each other to perform a particular task. That mother has proved that our hands have a great potential in providing for a visually impaired person and others,” adds Iradukunda.
{{Long journey ahead}}
Gatonye says that she has trained 50 persons including 10 university graduates who had no jobs.
She emphasizes that lacking job opportunities after graduation, discourages their brothers and sisters from advancing their education.
Gatonye also reveals that the organization has got connections with new partners to train beneficiaries on detecting breast cancer which she believes will increase opportunities for visually impaired persons who seem to be isolated in the community.
It is uneasy to teach a visually impaired person because it requires much practice and rehearsals. However, Gatonye explains that they learn fast as they are not exposed to many distractions. Within two years, she said, they can master different techniques of massage.
Part of generated income is shared among beneficiaries while the rest is used to pay teachers and buy equipment in case they do not receive funds from donors.
Gatonye urges the general public to avoid primitive understanding and stop stigmatizing people with visual impairment because they deserve a dignified life and respect like other members of the community.
The negative mindsets toward such people, she says, has seen some people denying them some services. She points out some cases where motorcyclists refuse to give them a ride with assumptions that they don’t have money to pay. Among others, Gatonye said that some landlords do not accept people with visual impairments yet they have money.
Gatonye discloses that she was isolated at different times over working with visually impaired people and requests people to shun such negative mindsets.
“There are instances when I was denied a house for rent because I work with visually impaired people. We have graduates from journalism but no one accepts to give them an employment opportunity. We have ICT professionals but no one trusts them,” she noted.
The issue was also pointed out by Callixte Ikuzwe. He is visually impaired but studied Assistive Technology used by people living with disability.
He currently works with Seeing Hands Rwanda.
“You can hardly find someone to trust you in the society. People only see you in the aspect of disability. In some cases, employers let you sit for job entry exam but with much worries. Mindsets are still primitive. People think that people with disability can only work with organizations giving priority to these persons. It should not be taken into that perspective because they are able to contribute to national development in different ways,” said Ikuzwe.
He requested the government to up efforts aimed at advancing inclusion of persons living with disabilities at the labour market.
Courses at Seeing Hands Rwanda begin at 9:00 a.m. When a client needs services, one of trainees designated on rotational basis is obliged to stop class and attend to him or her.
They go for break at 1:00 p.m. and return to class at 2:00 p.m.
Due to limited resources, beneficiaries are not accommodated the center that they return home at 4:00 p.m. everyday.
Speaking at a meeting of the Movement of Enterprises of France (MEDEF), Borne said that common goals were required.
“We are entering an era of collective responsibility,” she said.
“Climate change is no longer an inconvenient truth, it’s a destructive reality. We must implement radical and innovative solutions, initiate powerful changes in the way we produce, and invest in training for the jobs of tomorrow.”
If Russia were to cut all gas exports to Europe, France would need to quickly find ways to “make ecological transition an opportunity for innovation, growth and employment,” Borne said.
“We already know that we will have less gas this winter compared to the other years,” she said.
“This crisis is a new challenge for European solidarity, because in return, we will strongly suffer the consequences of a European economic slowdown. We only have one path, lower energy consumption.”
At the beginning of August, the country’s minister for energy transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher said that France’s gas reserves were already 80 percent full, in preparation for possible shortages this winter.
Pannier-Runacher said that France was ahead of its goals, and that the gas reserves would be 100 percent filled by Nov. 1.
French President Emmanuel Macron is also expected to hold a defense council meeting on Friday, to discuss France’s energy plan for the winter.
“The International Commission of Human Rights Experts for Ethiopia is outraged about the renewal of hostilities between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front,” a statement issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) quoted the Commission as saying.
The Commission warned that such fighting exacerbates the hardship on civilians in the region and carries with it the risk of escalation.
“We call upon the parties to immediately cease their fighting and return to the process of dialogue that each has accepted,” it said.
The Commission also urged both sides to immediately take all steps needed to allow the UN and other agencies to carry out the distribution of humanitarian assistance in the conflict-affected areas.
“The human rights, health, and welfare of civilians must be the utmost priority of all parties,” the Commission affirmed.
The Commission is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to, among other things, conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law and international refugee law in Ethiopia committed by all parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia since November 2020.
The Commission, which was established by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in December last year, conducted its first-ever visit to the East African country from July 25 to 30.
The rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which currently de-facto rules Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force backed by allied forces have been engaged in a conflict since early November 2020. The conflict left millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
In March this year, the Ethiopian government and the rebel group announced a humanitarian ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the conflict-affected parts of northern Ethiopia. Renewed fighting, however, erupted last week.
The nation’s largest opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), gained 43.95 percent of the total votes cast, said the CNE.
According to the final results, the MPLA won 124 of the 220 National Assembly seats. The UNITA finished second with 90 seats in parliament.
In accordance with the Angolan constitution, the top candidate of a political party that wins the most votes is elected as president.
Those arrested include one Rusungu Maula, 30, a driver of the truck, in which they were trafficking the narcotics.
Other two, who were also aboard the same truck, which was transporting bags of cement, are Bonaventure Niyonkuru, 27, and Zebron Ntegerejimana, 20.
The Western Region Political and Civic Education Officer (RPCEO), Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Mucyo Rukundo, said that the trio had covered the narcotics with bags of cement.
“They had concealed 22.7kgs of cannabis in a bag of cement and covered with other bags of cement. Good enough, Police had prior information and a checkpoint was mounted in Birogo along Rusizi-Nyamasheke highway where the vehicle was intercepted and the three people taken into custody.
Police also recovered another bag expected to be of cement, stashed with second-hand clothes,” CIP Rukundo said.
Ntegerejimana allegedly hired Rusungu and his co-driver Niyonkuru to smuggle the narcotics and second-hand clothes from Kamurehe Cell of Gashonga Sector.
They have been handed over to RIB at Kamembe station for further investigations.
“Drug traffickers are arrested almost everyday, and that should be a strong warning that if you are still engaged in these high impact crimes, you will also be arrested to face the law,” CIP Rukundo warned.
He hailed the impact of community policing in identifying and reporting drug dealers in communities, their syndicates, routes and tricks used by drug dealers and other prohibited goods.
As secondary students are preparing to go back to school soon, SKOL has launched the second edition of the scholarship program to allow more students who are eligible to enroll and benefit from it.
The scholarship program supported 59 students who are in secondary schools and 6 students attending university in the first year.
One of the employees who benefited from this program said: “The scholarship provided by SKOL has covered the total amount of the school fees that I was supposed to pay for my three kids. This allowed me to save that amount and invest it in order to develop my family. I am thankful to my employer for having thought about this great initiative.”
The scholarship program was launched to harness and nourish the capabilities that lie within the Rwandan youth, particularly SBL Employees’ Children and contribute to their education and skills development. SKOL Brewery Management and Mrs. Relecom are very happy to see its impact only one year after its launch.
Tunisia’s Maritime Guard thwarted these illegal immigration attempts late Saturday and early Sunday off the country’s southern, central-eastern and northern coasts, Jbabli said in a statement.
The Maritime Guard also rescued 723 illegal immigrants, including 346 from African countries, the spokesman added.
Located at the northern tip of Africa, Tunisia is one of the most popular transit points for illegal immigration to Europe.
Although Tunisian authorities have adopted rigorous measures to tackle the problem, the number of illegal immigration attempts from Tunisia to Italy still increases.
The zoo officials on a routine patrol spotted the intruder who jumped the security fences into the lions’ enclosure in the zoo located in the Achimota Forest, one of the capital’s green belts, said the statement.
“The intruder was attacked and injured by one of the lions within the inner fencing of the enclosure. He was confirmed dead from injuries sustained, and the body has been conveyed to the morgue,” it said.
The commission “wished to assure the general public that no lion has escaped from the zoo,” adding that the motive of the intruder was not known, and investigations were underway.
Dube-Ncube made the remarks while addressing the people at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban and congratulating the Russian runner Alexandra Morozova for winning the Comrades Marathon 2022 in the women’s category.
Dube-Ncube said the event benefited tourism and the economy, including the small enterprises in KwaZulu-Natal province. “It should be remembered that KZN hosted the most successful 5th BRICS Summit in 2013,” she said, noting she would like to see more cooperation with BRICS countries.
BRICS is the acronym for an emerging-market bloc that groups Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
More than 15,000 athletes took part in the 89-km Comrades Marathon Sunday.
The Premier is, in particular, encouraging exchange programs for the benefit of the people of KwaZulu-Natal province. “We are exploring exchange programs in sports, culture, business — including exchange programs involving academic institutions. We do not want to leave our cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises from the townships and deep rural areas. Critically, we want young people and women to benefit from such international relations. We want to ensure that they are part of building a prosperous province for future generations,” Dube-Ncube said.
South Africa’s Durban is a “twin city” of Guangzhou, the capital of south China’s Guangdong Province. EThekwini municipality, the metropolitan municipality that includes Durban, is the sister city of Xiamen, east China’s Fujian Province.
