This year we are looking for start-ups focusing on Enhancing Marriott Hotels’ guest experience.
Seed and early stage start-ups within the above category are welcome. We expect the entries to be ready to pilot within a live hotel environment.
{{“0 cash; 0 equity; 100% opportunity”}}
TestBED is a unique accelerator; we do not offer start-ups cash, nor do we ask for equity. We provide start-ups with an invaluable opportunity to test their products for 10 weeks within an operating Marriott Hotel across Middle East and Africa. During this period, start-ups will be able to receive feedback from Marriott guests and associates to help develop their product.
In addition, TestBED offers participating start-ups:
– A marketing training programme, tailored to their needs, provided by industry
leaders
– Mentoring from a range of experts from Marriott Hotels
– Global exposure through Marriott Hotels’ marketing and media
The TestBED accelerator programme lasts 10 weeks. During this time, start-ups will not be required to relocate their operations. However, participants may be required to travel, as most of this period will be spent within a Marriott Hotel in the Middle East or Africa to pilot their products.
Participants will also be expected to attend TestBED’s 1-day pitch and 3-day boot-camp in the UAE.
Start-ups are encouraged to make the most of the pilot period within their designated hotel.
In total are ten houses constructed in four-in-one housing units worth Rwf1,042,557,619
Francoise Niyonsaba, a beneficiary in the village said that she was pleased with the support.
“I’m very happy to be among beneficiaries of these houses; I had nowhere to live so just had to always rent in Nyamirambo. I’m relieved of rent,” she said.
The Minister of State for Community Development and Social Affairs, Dr. Alvera Mukabaramba urged beneficiaries on taking good care of the houses.
“This project is among government programmes aimed at providing good shelter to its population by, especially bringing the poorest in the loop. We urge you to own and maintain them,” she said.
She added that the programme helps Rwandans live in safe place, but also helps the country to save land for more development activities.
“We encourage more people to come and construct in this village as they relocate from high risk zones,” she added.
Nyarugenge District mayor, Kayisime Nzaramba said that the houses were given to genocide survivors and poor people who had been living in high risk zones.
The Smurfs by Marta Mascellani will be turned into a special livery plane to be unveiled next March. Precedent four Belgian Icons are Rakcham (Tintin), Magritte, Trident (Red Devils) and Amare (tomorrowland).
“WE HAVE A WINNER! Thank you for all your votes and ideas. Here is our winner: “The Smurfs” by Marta Mascellani. Congratulations! We look forward to showing you our 5th Belgian Icon which will be revealed in spring next year,” reads the statement by Brussels Airlines.
Marta M., an Italian student, commented on the victory saying, “The main subject is “Les schtroumpfs” because in 2018 there will be the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the cartoon. I drew them as members of Brussels Airlines crew as well as passengers. I inserted also two other objects which clearly represent Belgium: the first one is the Atomium (on the top of the trolley) and the other one is the Sax, played by the last passenger on the right. For the background I used the colours of Belgian flag.”
Belgian giant carrier had, in August, launched a competition in which the carrier’s customers submitted 1415 entries about the Belgian idea or person they wish to see soaring through the skies on an Airbus A320.
Two finalists, The Smurfs by Marta Mascellani and Art Nouveau/Horta by Ahmet Sefer were picked a fortnight ago and everyone was allowed to cast their vote until last Sunday.
The Smurfs was first created and introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, where they were known as Les Schtroumpfs. There are more than 100 Smurf characters.
No idea is too crazy in the land of surrealism: designs of dancing chicory and the hair of Belgian Red Devil Fellaini were just some of the more eccentric ideas. The most popular ideas were however related to Belgian comics (the Smurfs, Marsupilami, Lucky Luke, Le Chat,..), music (Toots Thielemans, the Saxophone, Jacques Brel,…) and food (chocolate, fries, waffles,…). Ideas were submitted not only by Belgians, but also by fans from France, Germany, Uganda, Lebanon and Colombia.
The jury, consisting of Tomorrowland General Manager Dave Sips, Olympic champion Olivia Borlée, CEO of Pairi Daiza Eric Domb, CEO and artistic director of BOZAR Paul Dujardin, producer and musician Netsky and Belgian Star Chef Yves Mattagne had anything but an easy task to select two finalists out of all the entries, but on Monday night they reached a decision, together with Brussels Airlines representatives, including CEO Bernard Gustin.
The jury considered, among other criteria, the international character, the uniqueness of the designs and if the icon is a good ambassador for Belgium.
Next to eternal fame, the winner gets to follow the entire design process and the creation of the Belgian Icon behind the scenes. Furthermore, the winner will be on the front row during the big reveal event and will fly on its maiden voyage.
Tintin, Magritte, the Belgian Red Devils and Tomorrowland each fly proudly on an Airbus A320 as Belgian Icons. Also on board, Brussels Airlines does whatever it takes to immerse her passengers in the Belgian culture: from chocolates, beers and menus made by Belgian Star Chefs to cabin crew uniforms designed by Belgian designers.
The departing officers are Jean Baptiste Mugunga of Nyamabuye sector and Hubert Ruzindana of Kibangu sector.
Cells executive secretaries are those of Remera, Gahogo and Gitarama.
All executive secretaries submitted their resignation letters in the District extra-ordinary meeting that discussed different performance issues in Muhanga.
All cells are in Nyamabuye, a Muhanga town-based sector.
Among reasons behind their resignation are land related issues, city master plan implementation queries and poor hygiene.
The deputy commissioner for custom services at Rwanda Revenue Authority, William Musoni said that when selecting AEOs, they consider integrity among traders with imports threshold of above Rwf200 million.
Under this memorandum, commodities pass the border without customs clearance and get cleared afterwards.
“It eases movement of goods and their clearance is done after the goods have entered the country” he said.
Speaking at the event, the minister for trade and industry, Vincent Munyeshyaka said that the move will not only facilitate traders, but also impact the Rwandan economy
“As many imported products are used in industries, it supports the economy by reducing the cost of transportation. It also affects EAC countries’ economy in general” he said.
He said that 46 traders enjoy the same opportunity in Rwanda and East African Community
Speaking to IGIHE, the chairperson of Gisagara District Advisory Council Innocent Uwimana said that they received the resignation letter Thursday afternoon.
“We received his letter mentioning personal reasons” he said.
He said that the district council will meet very soon to review his resignation before accepting it.
Mvukiyehe has been Gisagara Executive Secretary since 2011.
The Smart Village, located in Tumba Sector Rulindo District, Northern Province, has a population of 21,000 and an estimated 5,000 households.
The Smart Village Initiative aims to bridge the digital divide in rural Rwanda by bringing technological solutions and innovations to residents in order to enhance their daily lives, increase socio-economic opportunities and create jobs by increasing their access to ICT and services.
The pillars of the Smart Village are Digital Literacy, Financial Inclusion, Education, Connectivity/Electricity, Healthcare, Agriculture, Governance and Smart Markets.
Tigo Rwanda supports the Smart Village Initiative through the three pillars of Connectivity, Digital Literacy and Financial Inclusion.
“In order to support the three pillars, Tigo Rwanda invested in providing 3G and 4G connectivity to the 21, 000 Tumba Sector residents. Today, they are able to enjoy the fastest and most affordable Internet in the country”said Tigo Rwanda Deputy Chief Operating Executive, Chantal UmutoniKagame on the launch of the Tumba Smart Village
Working with suppliers, Tigoprovide subsidized handsets to residents. The feature phones and smart phones Tigo provides are the most affordable in Rwanda at the cost of Rrw6,000 and Rrw36,000 respectively.
“This shall ensure that as many people in this community are able to access handsets” she said.
Alongside our partners, our VAS (Value Addded Services) trainers are teaching residents how to utilize the Internet, thereby opening the digital world to them. Using our various Mobile Financial Services, residents can now enjoy Tigo Cash services such as Push and Pull, which allow them to move money to and from their bank accounts using their handsets,Umutoni reiterated
With Tigo’s Digital Saving Groups platform, they created a platform that allows unbanked local savings groups (Ibimina) to digitize.
“Now youth and women’s groups as well as cooperatives can enjoy the convenience of our MFS tools” she added.
Vuba led a group named after former leader Kuryama. He is a son of the late, legendary silverback Titus and a well-known female named Tuck was his mother. He spent many years with Titus, and inherited the gentle facial expressions of his father as well as his kind behavior toward all of the group members. When his brother, Kuryama, formed his own group in 2007, Vuba went with him, keeping a subordinate position but always well accepted by the group. He became dominant after the death of former leader Kirahure in August 2015. Kirahure had taken over following the death of Kuryama.
Starting soon after taking over leadership, Vuba led his group across the border of Rwanda into the Democratic Republic of Congo, beyond the ranging area of our trackers. This was repeated again in 2016, until they re-stabilized in their original range in Rwanda last September.
Vuba had the support of two younger silverbacks in the group – 14-year-old Igihozo and 13-year-old Tetero – who will now have the task of leading the group. Their presence is a great advantage for the group and may help it stay cohesive. With the loss of Vuba, the group contains only seven members. It is an unusual group in that there is only one adult female member.
Vuba is one of the many gorillas who have been followed throughout their entire lives by the Fossey Fund, so his loss is deeply felt by the staff. “We are extremely saddened by Vuba’s death,” says Felix Ndagijimana, the Fossey Fund’s director of the Karisoke Research Center and all of our Rwanda programs. “He was a great leader and played a crucial role in maintaining the integrity and cohesiveness of the group during the different dominance changes it went through.”
“He was one of the most gentle male gorillas I’ve ever met,” says Veronica Vecellio, Fossey Fund gorilla program manager. “We rarely saw Vuba engaging in or initiating a fight. His personality was suited to so many roles and phases of his life, from supporter of prior group leaders to peaceful leader in his own right.”
Twelve Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been awarded with a grant of Rwf300 million, Rwf25 million each, to continue with the implementation of programmes that are intended to transform people’s livelihoods.
In line with the seven years government programme, the government of Rwanda through Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), jointly with the One UN via UNDP initiated the joint programme on strengthening CSOs for responsive and accountable governance in Rwanda to contribute to the overall implementation of the Second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS2)
The benefitting CSOs had earlier submitted their project proposals in four areas; family cohesion, agriculture, environment protection and legal aid.
Speaking at the awarding ceremony, RGB chief executive officer, Professor Anastase Shyaka said that different ministries and institutions supported the exercise as it complements their programmes.
The hand-over ceremony took place yesterday during the close-out of the 2.5-year programme in Kigali.
Dubbed ‘Mentorship Community of Practice’, the project has created an online forum for teachers to share best practices in the classroom and to complete online courses that strengthen teaching skills
In the event, the Acting Mission Director of USAID/Rwanda, Adriana Hayes handed over key online components of the project to the Ministry of Education, Rwanda Education Board, and University of Rwanda College of Education.
These components include online community portal, a digital library and an accredited online certification course to teachers to improve their Kinyarwanda-language reading instruction for students in P1 to P3.
“USAID is extremely proud to be able to turn over these online tools to the Rwandan people. We are confident that these tools, in your very capable hands, will continue to connect, motivate and prepare many excellent teachers,” Adriana Hayes said
According to USAID, over 1,000 teachers in 1,000 schools and over 400 Sector Education Offices in every district in Rwanda are connected to the online portal. Members of this online community of practice have made nearly 50,000 posts in discussions on over 15,000 topics
Commenting on the program, the Rwanda Education Board Director General (REB), Janvier Gasana congratulated the teachers graduating from the seven month course, and encouraged development partners to continue supporting Rwanda’s development priorities.
“As the government, we are committed to transforming education in Rwanda by prioritizing early grade literacy, teacher training and access to educational resources,” he said
