Rwanda is championing a whole revolution that cannot be ignored. It is f*ighting to provide the vulnerable with housing in less d*angerous settlements and leading a war against thatched houses.
The country is winning on bo/th fronts.
Rwanda is championing a whole revolution that can/not be ignored. In 2008, it adopted the "Agasozi Ndatwa" (Model Village) approach and according to The Red Cross, the first village was launched in 2010 with technical and financial assistance from the Belgian Red Cross, European Union Directorate Gen/eral Development and Cooperation and many other Red Cro/ss chapters. The futuristic progr/amme was officially initiated in 2010, styled the Integrated Development Progr/amme. The plan is to replicate the model villages throughout the country. It is probably one of the most impressive policies to be implemented by an African govern/ment in the 2010s.
The Programme was inaugurated in July 2016 by President Kagame, and Rweru Model Village, one of the first to be co/mpleted is reported to be "connected to electricity, water, has a modern market, a school and a 12 kilometre road network connecting it between Kag/asa to Batima". Soon after the inauguration, Augustin Kampayana, the head of human settlement and development at Rwanda Housing Authority told reporters that, "We have identi/fied settlement sites where villages will be constructed and designs are being made.
By the end of the next fiscal year, each district will be having a model village," before adding, "Those living in high-risk zones and scattered settlements will be consider/ed first."
This year alo/ne, President Kagame has officially opened the Horezo and Kanyenyeri model villages among ma/ny others. The poor are attaining more dignified lives by the day. In the President's words, "We are not buil/ding homes only to see them falling apart in a year. Giving ci/tizens a home is about providing a foundation bu/ild on and transform your lives. It is not about citi/zens becoming eternally depen/dent on government on government.” The goal/ is very clear: the creation of sustainable communities. According to the /Rwanda Housing Author/ity, by 2020, at least 70 % of households living in rural areas should have settled in integrated viable settlements that can offer can offer economic opportunities, favor rational land use management and accelerate servicing with bas/ic social economic and physical infrastructures in rural areas.
The gover/nment has also led a fight against grass-thatched houses in rural areas (Nyakatsi) and the programme is also successfully bettering the lives of the rural poor.