National and District coordinators of Rwanda Youth Volunteers in Community Policing (RYVCP) have committed full support toward the forthcoming Police Week activities. Police Week, an annual event, promotes the role of community-police partnership, crime prevention campaigns, supporting government programmes and social protection programmes, among others. The youth made the commitment, on Wednesday, during their meeting with the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana, at RNP General Headquarters in Kacyiru. This year’s Police Week will be marked under the theme, “17 years of vibrant partnership in policing: towards sustainable safety and security.” It is scheduled to run for one month, from May 15 to June 15, and climax on ‘Police Day’ (June 16) the day the Force will be marking its 17th anniversary. During the meeting, Gasana lauded the youth volunteers for their partnership in ensuring public safety and urged them to continue to play a significant role in policing activities. “Your effort in ensuring public safety is highly commendable; always use your networks to strengthen the community policing activities,” IGP Gasana said. “Always aspire for innovation, teamwork and real time information sharing.” He urged the youth to exploit all means of communication, especially social media, in engaging with the public to collectively ensure a safer Rwanda. Activities Among the human security activities planned during the Police Week include distribution of solar home systems (SHS) to 3,000 households in remote areas, and 30 health centres across the country, which will be conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Infrastructure. Others are launch of the construction of a football pitch in Gasabo District, and holding several anti-crime awareness campaigns. The national coordinator of RYVCP, Justus Kangwagye, said youth volunteers are ready to provide necessary support during Police Week activities mainly through enhanced anti-crime campaigns, and sustaining gains made. “As Police’s main partners, we have committed to go beyond just sensitisation campaigns in the upcoming Police Week activities and ensure that the solar panels that RNP will give out are well maintained,” he said. The youth forum has also been actively involved in constructing and renovating houses for the underprivileged, environmental protection, awareness campaigns against crimes especially those that are said to be of high impact like illicit drugs, corruption, genocide ideology, gender based violence, child abuse, among others. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
