World Connect Rwanda showcases power of community-led development with 12 projects

World Connect Rwanda, in partnership with Musanze District and the University of Rwanda-Busogo campus, hosted a ceremony on Thursday May 28th 2026 to inaugurate 12 development projects meant for improving lives in Gatovu Integrated Development Program (IDP) model village and Gataraga Sector in Musanze District. Event attendees toured the development projects, each of which was designed and implemented by residents of Gatovu IDP model village and Gataraga Sector. The projects included a computer laboratory, a girls’ hygiene room and a nursing teachers’ room for Groupe Scolaire Gatovu, a volleyball and basketball court at Group Scolaire Ruhehe, latrines for 50 households, businesses in furniture-making, handicraft-making, soap-making, and tailoring, a savings and lending group, a sheep farming project, Irish potato farming, and new market infrastructure for vendors and customers. Northern Province highlights the projects’ community impact The Executive Secretary of Northern Province, Pascal Ngendahimana, who presided over the ceremony together with representatives of Musanze District and Gataraga Sector, observed that many of these development projects provide ongoing benefits to the whole community. “For example, when a community group makes furniture to sell, they not only earn themselves income, they also make those products available locally – so, residents here do not have to travel far to obtain them,” he said. Communities viewed as investment partners, not just beneficiaries Following a memorandum of understanding signed with the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC), World Connect Rwanda invested more than Rwf135.9 million to launch the 12 projects. Residents of Gatovu IDP model and Gataraga Sector contributed over Rwf88.2 million through their own cash, labour and other resources as a co-investment into these initiatives. The Executive Director of World Connect Rwanda, Rhoda Kanyesigye, told the attendees, “We do not see communities as beneficiaries of development aid, but as investment partners. This is because our partner communities co-invest with us. And we value their investment enormously; without it, success is not durable.” University of Rwanda students support project implementation In a unique partnership, University of Rwanda students studying rural development and agribusiness were paired with community members in Gataraga Sector and Gatovu IDP model village. The students are supporting the implementation of these development projects with technical guidance, monitoring, and evaluation. “World Connect Rwanda helped us apply what we learned in class to real life situations, showing us that community work teaches lessons that cannot be fully learned from textbooks,” said University of Rwanda student Winny Abera. From 200 community-led projects to benefiting 100,000 more Rwandans: expansion plan underway Since 2012, World Connect Rwanda has invested grant funding in nearly 200 projects that have been designed and led by Rwandan communities, improving health, education, and economic opportunity for over 256,000 Rwandans. A major focus of World Connect Rwanda for the next five years (2026-2030) is to scale up and support 10 IDP model villages, reaching and impacting an additional 100,000 Rwandans. Key partnerships with local government, the private sector, and funding partners will play a great role in this aspiration.

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World Connect Rwanda showcases power of community-led development with 12 projects