The teaching partnership and student internship exchange program between Carleton University located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario and the School of Journalism and Communication of the National University of Rwanda has been suspended.
Professor Allan Thompson, a journalist that helped run the project since its inception in 2006, declared in a statement Thursday that the school has closed down a house where students lived on the exchange.
Thompson in a letter to current and past participants in the initiative noted, “It is with a great deal of sadness that I confirm that the Rwanda Initiative has formally suspended its activities.
“We have closed down our house in Kigali and paid severance to our local staff members.”
He added that the project cost $240,000 a year to run and would not continue until a new source of funds and new housing arrangements are found.
The school had exhausted spare funds after its partnership agreement with the U.S. Government expired in May.
The school will also stop sending visiting lecturers to the National University of Rwanda or Great Lakes Media Centre.
The Rwanda project had served as a chance for journalism students to take a two-month internship with a media organization by both Rwandans and the students from Carleton University.
The professor also outlined in the letter that the University of Rwanda refused to keep paying rent on the project house located in Kimihurura sector, Kigali city, and that “the school therefore had to vacate the house by the end of August and let our staff go”.
Thompson added the initiative continues to seek new funding opportunities.
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