World Vision Rwanda has concluded projects that were implemented under its community development programmes in Gasabo and Kicukiro districts.

The development activities implemented in the Kigali Cluster included education and child protection, health and WASH (Water, sanitation and hygiene), resilience and livelihood interventions.

World Vision Rwanda phased out the projects and handed them over to Kigali City leadership, who said the organisation’s interventions contributed to the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1).

"For the 15 years, we’ve worked with World Vision and we appreciate their development activities which contributed to the goals of the NST1 and improvement of livelihoods in the two districts,” said Merard Mpabwanamaguru, the Vice Mayor in charge of Urbanisation and Infrastructure of the City of Kigali.

"What we ask the beneficiaries of the development projects, such as water facilities and health posts, is to protect them and make the best use of them in order to improve their livelihoods,” he said.

Pauline Okumu, the National Director of World Vision Rwanda, expressed her gratitude to all that contributed to the transformational development achieved in the areas that were reached.

"We are excited today to celebrate the work we’ve done since 2007 with the community in the two districts. We found a community that was facing challenges like high prevalence of HIV and there was also a need for peace and reconciliation,” Okumu said.

She added, "The community identified the areas that needed our intervention such as water and sanitation, economic empowerment, education and child protection as well as health and nutrition, and we then embarked on interventions to address these challenges.”

World Vision built classrooms, health posts and water facilities in Rusororo sector in Gasabo District, and Kanombe and Nyarugunga sectors in Kicukiro District. Over 10,000 children have been supported through World Vision’s sponsorship programmes in these two districts, for the past 15 years.

They also supported farmers and other community members to establish income-generating activities.

"In this village, a lot has changed after we got the water facility World Vision built for us. We used to walk many kilometres to get water but today we have it near our homes,” said Marie Rose Nyirahategekimana, who manages an automated water kiosk that was built in 2019 in Rusororo Sector.

Thanks to the partnership with the government, World Vision said that the education intervention increased reading proficiency for grade three pupils, from 30 per cent to 70 per cent. With regards to nutrition, stunting among children decreased from 32 per cent to 20 per cent.

"I am glad that the seeds we planted and watered for the last 15 years have now grown by the grace of God,” Okumu said.

World Vision started operating in Rwanda in 1994 after the Genocide against the Tutsi and has helped tackle some of the problems that the country faced at the time.

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organisation helping children, families, and their communities overcome poverty and injustice. It operates across all the 30 districts in Rwanda with interventions in WASH, education and child protection, resilience and livelihoods, health and nutrition, and humanitarian and emergency affairs, among others.