Students to receive life jackets

School children, especially those who travel to school by water within the East African Community, are set to receive life jackets. This will be through Rotary Mariners of East Africa (RMEA) after they received over 1,000 New and used but usable life jackets from Rotary Mariners in Italy. The donation is part of the International Yachting Fellow of Rotarian (IYFR) Grants Programme “The US Coast Guard estimates that life jackets could have saved the lives of over 90 per cent of boating fatality victims,” reads part of the communication. One hundred of those life jackets were handed over to the Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga when they hosted 35 Rotarians from Uganda’s Rotary club of Bweyogerere-Namboole. The handover took place at the Kigali Public Library which was constructed through the efforts of the Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga. The Ugandan Rotarians were given a guided tour of the modern library covering the different sections, the French, American, e-library and the children’s section among others. They were later taken on a Kigali City tour and also found time to visit other parts of Rwanda before leaving the country. During the tour, the Ugandans were impressed by the One Laptop per Child project as well as the French section of the library where modern readers and tablets are used.CPP Paul Masterjab who did a good job in explaining various government policies to the visitors also thanked them for their efforts to see to it that the life jackets made it to Rwanda. He also told the visitors about the various projects run by Rotary club of Kigali-Virunga that also include free plastic surgery clinics and a campaign against diabetes.“This trip has opened our eyes and has inspired us to much more. We have learnt a lot and by the time we go back we shall have so much to share,” said one of the visitors from Uganda. “These people are very focused, coordinated and they have long term plans that are very impressive. The political will of the government has clearly been very supportive of the projects that Rotary has embarked on,” Prossy Ssebina another Rotarian.The IYFR is the oldest and largest of the Rotary Fellowships. It started operation in England in 1947 and has grown to 88 fleets, with more than 2800 members in 20 countries. The RMEA are the first African Fleet.