{The Chairman and CEO of the Howard G Buffett Foundation has vowed to help Congolese refugees repatriate to their motherland country.}
Howard G Buffet made the pledge on Monday December 15, 2014 at Gihembe Refugee Camp in Gicumbi District where he landed after an aerial visit to various refugee camps in the country.
“I have seen that they have some basic infrastructure like water and schools, but when people are not in their homes they do not feel comfortable,” Buffett said.
“When they are in camps, they have no choice, whether they need to become big farmers, whether they need to be government officials. I have travelled over different refugees‘s camps, I saw huge piles of woods and tanks of water. All these require a lot of money that is consumed every day. That is why people need to go home and that it is what we need to support. ,” he pledged.
Since 2099, Buffett supports girl child education in Rwandan refugee camps providing them with school fees and other scholastic materials through the Howard Graham Buffett Foundation (HGBF) that works in nearly 80 countries worldwide.
The Foundation has sponsored 437 girls in refugee camps across the country. Among those sponsored, 392 of them have already completed secondary studies with 21 employed as teachers, while 23 are pursuing university education, four are working with non-governmental organizations as social workers, and others employed in both private and public institutions.
Ever since the Foundation started helping the refugees in December 2009, Buffett has already injected over $603, 8190 in the project.
Ruvebana Antoine the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Disaster Management and refugee affairs said that Buffet initiative to help refugees repatriate would be a special support.
“We consider buffet as a special partner because he provide support that help refugees to be self-reliant. But most specifically, his initiative to facilitate refugees repatriate is particularly commanded.” Said Ruvebana
Dr. Azama Saber, UNHCR representative( L), Ruvebana Antoine(M) and Howard Buffet land at Gicumbi to visit Gihembe refugee camp
Currently, Buffett serves on the corporate boards of Berkshire Hathaway, an investment holding company; Coca Cola; Lindsay Corporation; and Sloan Implement. He is the director of Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational conglomerate holding company run by his father Warren Buffett, that is the fifth largest public company in the world, and he is a major sponsor of the World Food Programme (WFP).
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