Staff members of UNHCR Rwanda, UNFPA and urban-based refugees on Thursday donated an assortment of items to the Youth and Handicapped Centre located at Gahanga, a Kigali suburb.

The occasion of donating to the orphans was organized as part of the planned activities leading up to the celebration of World Refugee Day slated for tomorrow.

The items included hygiene kits, clothing and other items.
The gifts were received on behalf of the Centre by Sister Emeritha Nyirandizeye of the Catholic Church Friends of the Poor Congregation.

"You have come to comfort us and rekindle hopes that we are not alone”, the nun said as she received the gifts from the UNHCR Country Representative, Annette Rita Nyekan.
Nyekan said that this year, as celebrates the day, her office thought of doing something different.

"Our mandate, no doubt, is to take care of refugees, but we work and live among Rwandans and cannot be indifferent of their existence,” she stressed.

She added that it will be necessary that each year UNHCR does something for the Centre.

The Executive Secretary of the National Council for refugees (CNR), Innocent Ngango, praised the initiative which he said will certainly inspire other organisations to follow suit.

He described the ceremony as laudable and an eye-opener.
The Gahanga Youth and Handicapped Centre hosts 34 disabled children who can barely talk, including one refugee.

According to Sister Nyirandizeye, most of the children are orphans, abandoned or neglected by their parents.
The Centre was created in 2000 by the Catholic Church to cater for disabled children.

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