The Rwanda Red Cross has constructed 180 housing units for vulnerable residents in Nyabihu District.

The houses are set to be inaugurated, today, during celebrations to mark the International Day of the Red Cross.

The beneficiaries include Rwandans who were repatriated from DR Congo and Tanzania and those evicted from risk zones in Nyabihu.

Addressing journalists in Kigali, yesterday, the president of Rwanda Red Cross society, Dr Bernard Nzigiye, said they have initiated a ‘model village’ project for the returnees in the country.

"We have provided them with 120 sheep and taught them how to grow vegetables, mainly for communities that lack basic needs,” said Nzigiye.

"It is a good approach that we have adopted to improve the lives of returnees; we are trying to add effort on what the government has put up as a way of alleviating poverty in the country.”

Rwanda Red Cross has also provided youths with different skills in order to curb the problem of unemployment among them.

"As Red Cross, we have trained young people in the villages how to cultivate and plant vegetables that can help them fight multination as well as taught them how to build latrines,” Nzigiye said.

Apollinaire Karamaga, the secretary-general of Rwanda Red Cross, said their priority is providing basic amenities, among other things.

"We are trying as much as possible to provide them with everything that is supposed to be found in the village like clean water, pit latrines, kitchen gardens, among others, so that they don’t have to go somewhere else to look for them,” said Karamaga.

The Rwanda Red Cross has also completed the construction of 668 houses in Kirehe, Ngoma and Bugesera districts for returnees from Tanzania.

The Red Cross says it has constructed more than 2000 houses for vulnerable orphans and children in various parts of the country over the years.

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