Orphans’ fund gets Rwf1.5m boost

The ‘One Dollar Campaign’,  a humanitarian initiative whose aim is to provide decent housing to orphans of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, has received a Rwf1.5 m donation from the Public Sector Capacity Building Secretariat (PSCBS) formerly HIDA. 

Friday, August 14, 2009
Charles Karake, Director PSCBS

The ‘One Dollar Campaign’,  a humanitarian initiative whose aim is to provide decent housing to orphans of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, has received a Rwf1.5 m donation from the Public Sector Capacity Building Secretariat (PSCBS) formerly HIDA. 

During a ceremony to make the donation yesterday, the PSCBS Director, Charles Karake, noted that the secretariat had decided to join fellow Rwandans in the noble cause of contributing to the funding of accommodation for the orphans.

"The secretariat has few staff, about 20, but we all agreed to contribute to the noble cause and hence raised funds through deduction of our monthly salaries,” Karake said.

While explaining the current progress of the campaign, the Director General of the Rwanda Diaspora Directorate, Robert Masozera, highlighted that the relevant paperwork on the land the construction project will be situated, will be ready soon.

Officials say that seven blocks of flats will be constructed on the 1.5 hectares of land in Kagugu, a suburb in Gasabo district, Kigali city.

"It is therefore very good that we are now receiving more contributions to support us in realizing our objective,” Masozera added.

In a related development, a Tanzanian cement manufacturing factory, Tanga cement also recently pledged to contribute 20 tonnes of cement to this initiative.

Once complete, the houses will accommodate about 600 children currently forced to stay at school even during holidays as they have nowhere else to go.  The campaign has so far collected close to Rwf900m.

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