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The race to end malnutrition requires clean water and sanitation

WaterAid Rwanda calls for action ahead of Rio Olympics

The race to end malnutrition requires clean water, good sanitation and good hygiene, WaterAid said today, calling for action as world leaders meet in Rio to open the Olympic Games. WaterAid’s new report, ‘Caught Short’, looks at stunting from malnutrition around the world and the links to low rates of access to clean water and good sanitation.

Currently 159 million children in the world are stunted as a result of malnutrition, their cognitive and physical growth damaged irreversibly by their inability to obtain and absorb the nutrients they need. Some 50% of malnutrition is linked to infections, worm infestations and diarrhoeal illnesses caused by dirty water, poor sanitation and a lack of hygiene including handwashing with soap.

In Rwanda 38% of children under five are suffering from stunted growth. Some 24% of the population does not have access to clean water and 38.4% are without access to sanitation.

WaterAid’s Country Manager in Rwanda, Maurice Kwizera, said: “The evidence is clear: children’s health and future potential are compromised when they have no choice but to grow up without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene practices. Even if children survive their dangerous early years, repeated bouts of diarrhoea early in life are likely to leave them stunted, leaving Rwanda and Africa as a whole deprived of a new generation of great leaders, thinkers and athletes. World leaders have promised to end malnutrition and deliver water and sanitation to everyone, everywhere by 2030. They must keep their promises – one cannot be met without the other.”

Ahead of the Olympics, leaders and prominent current and former Olympians will meet in Rio on 4th August to bring attention to the importance of good nutrition.

WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. The international organisation works in 37 countries across Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific Region to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in some of the world’s poorest communities. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 23 million people with safe water and, since 2004, 21 million people with sanitation.

Around 315,000 children die each year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation. That’s nearly 900 children each day, or one child every two minutes.

For more information or to arrange interviews please contact

Fiona Uwera Mugabe, Head of Policy Research and Advocacy on fionauweramugabe@wateraid.org

As the 27th African Union summit to be held in Kigali, Rwanda from 10th to 18th July 2016 draws closer, various stakeholders including organizers and institutions are in high-gear preparations for quality service delivery.

Call Rwanda, an institution that works with thousands of Rwandans has also committed to be part of providers of services to guests during the upcoming AU summit. A guest will dial to the information center of Call Rwanda by dialing 5000 to be informed and directed where any particular services in Rwanda can be accessed, a service to be offered at no cost.

Guests shall be given information on;

• Telephone numbers of all institutions operating in Rwanda

• Airway companies and hotels

• Banks and insurance companies

• Public and luggage transport companies

• Hospitals ,Pharmacies and Doctors

• Appreciating or lodging a complaint

• Entertainment services

• Districts’ services

• Job delivery services

Such services are available in Kinyarwanda, English and French and are reserved for everyone from 7:00 am to 22:00 pm. Call Rwanda expects to work 24 out of 24 hours in the near future.

Talking on the facilitation for AU summit guests, the Chief Executive Officer of Call Rwanda, Aimé Crispin Nsengiyumva said: “ We want to create an impression of Rwanda’s development among participants of the 27th AU summit along with speed and improving service delivery through dialing 5000. Whoever calls will share the good experience with others,” he said.

Call Rwanda is an institution launched by youth .It plans to improve service delivery in Rwanda and has developed partnership with Rwanda Development Board, Rwanda Utility Regulatory Authority, MTN, Airtel, Tigo, IFDC, and Startimes in telecommunication services and Customer care.

Call Rwanda s the leading company in offering BULK SMS services and has various branches in Rwanda with an aim of speeding up the development and utilization of mobile phone. Any person in need of more information can get in touch with Call Rwanda offices facing City of Kigali headquarters or call 0789533616.

As a bid to promote cashless payments,leading local debit card scheme, SmartCash has embarked on a drive to push for more payments on Point of Sale (POS) terminals across the country.

The development comes as a move to boost Rwanda’s economic and financial ecosystem strategy of growing e-payments and paving the road for a cashless economy.

During the drive, SmartCash will carry out extensive communication on card payments, its benefits to users and the economy in general.

Speaking about the campaign, Mr. Jean Claude Gaga, Ag. Chief Executive Officer of RSwitch, said, “Beyond boosting e-payments, the goal of this is to meet the needs of our partner bank customers who will benefit relevant accessible services through the use of their SmartCash card to pay for their goods and services on any Point of Sale terminal in the country. It is the ease and convenience of a cashless life.”

“The growth of cashless payments has been pinned on developing countries and as an electronic payments enabler, we are happy to support the country’s agenda towards a cashless Rwanda,” Gaga added.

SmartCash cards payments on POS are free of charge and merchants canbe found at supermarkets, fuel stations, restaurants, pharmacies among others.

How do Point of Sale (POS) payments work?

In a three step process, SmartCashcustomers can make payments through:
Step 1: Hand card to merchant to enter bill, Step 2: Customer enters PIN and presses button ‘OK’ Step 3: Return the POS to the merchant to finalize the process. Once the payment is finalized, the customer will get a receipt from the merchant confirming payment.

According to the central bank, a lot of progress was achieved in card based payments which remain one of the major avenues for promoting a cashless economy.

Additionally, POS increased from 1009 in 2014 to more than 1700 in 2015 with 83% of these being in Kigali alone.The number of POS remains low but its usage grew to 124% between 2013/14 and 2014/5.

As a result of the central bank’s drive for interoperability, 97% of SmartCash cards transacted on all POS countrywide in 2015. The number of debit cards also increased by 23% from 532,000 in 2014 to 654,000 by June 2015.