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SURF hosts Conservative Party Team on two-week service trip in Rwanda
Kigali – July 2008
photo by Nshimyumukiza Gilbert, an orphan head of household
For the second year running Survivors Fund (SURF) worked to facilitate a visit to Rwanda in partnership with Project Umubano, an initiative established in August 2007 to educate and inform Conservative Party members on the challenges of international development.
Led by Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell MP, the team working with SURF, for whom Mr Mitchell is a Patron, was part of a larger delegation of 103 Conservative volunteers focused on recovery in Rwanda, across five areas: health, education, justice, the private sector and community construction. Amongst the delegation were 10 MPs and 11 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, as well as doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, teachers, lawyers and local councilors, all who devoted two weeks of their time to the project in Rwanda at their own expense (as participants paid for their own flights and accommodation).
SURF was privileged to work alongside hard working volunteers who rolled up their sleeves and worked to build a new community centre at Kinyinya Orphan's Village in Kigali, where SURF has built 47 homes for child heads-of-households, all young survivors of the 1994 genocide. The centre, funded by the Conservative Party, will provide recreational facilities for over 200 people in the village; it has a football pitch, children's play area, table tennis rooms, a volley ball court and outdoor theatre.
The project team consisted of about 20 volunteers, headed by Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Tobias Ellwood MP. The team also included Shadow Minister for International Development, Mark Lancaster MP, and Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidates.
Orphaned heads-of-household were involved in the project, making time early in the morning or late in the afternoon to help with the construction before and after school or work. The atmosphere was electric during the project, everyone working together to get the job done; digging and leveling the ground, painting the centre, making climbing frames and working on an array of other tasks. By the end of the two-week period, the whole team had bonded well. By the time it came to part way, a few tears were shed by those who couldn't but show their feelings.
Mary Kayitesi Blewitt OBE, Director of Survivors Fund (SURF), commented:
I am absolutely delighted that the Conservatives returned to Rwanda again this year to work with survivors of the genocide. This project is a model of cooperation between people in the UK and Rwanda, and I just hope that other individuals and institutions will follow its lead.
The climax of the project was the visit of H.E Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, who came to see the centre and to meet the team. The President unveiled a plaque which acknowledged the partnership between the Conservative Party and SURF, and recognised the donation of Lord Ashcroft who helped to provide the capital costs for the building.
Lord Ashcroft is a long-term supporter of SURF, providing financial aid to a number of orphaned survivors to access education. He visited the centre too and met with a number of the survivors that his funding supports through school.
Mary Blewitt concluded:
Both Mr Mitchell and Lord Ashcroft are amazingly engaged with the plight of survivors, which was reflected in the work of all the teams' projects in Rwanda. Together, they demonstrated their passion to support Rwanda's recovery and have left a positive mark and legacy.
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