The government of Japan has extended a grant worth $81,857 (over Rwf68m) to build a dormitory for Saint Joseph Nzuki, a Ruhango-based catholic vocational training school.

The dormitory will be completed in a period of six months and will accommodate 400 students.

Signing the grant, recently, at the Japanese embassy in Kigali, Takayuki Miyashita, the Japanese envoy to Rwanda echoed the importance of the support for the school that has about 300 children, half of whom are orphans who are exempted from paying tuition and accommodation fees.

"The new dormitory is expected to provide proper accommodation to the students, reduce the number of students who walk long distances to school, and allow the school to admit 100 more students,” he said.

"We understand also that the students at this moment are in a quite difficult situation as they face challenges with accommodation, while others have to walk 7 to 10 kilometres on foot to school every day,” Miyashita said, adding that in order to continue with the economic development of the country, skilled young people are needed and they have to be supported.

Fr Gerard Hakizimana, the headmaster of the school, said the project will have a great impact on a wide range of their activities.

"First, the social welfare of the 400 students will improve tremendously. Next, this project will increase the number of students in our school by 25 per cent,” he said, adding that it will improve the welfare of the local population by creating new employment opportunities.

The embassy of Japan provides grants to non-governmental organisations, schools and local authorities for their development projects under the framework of the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP). For the last 20 years, they have supported over 90 projects in the areas of education, water and sanitation, as well as agricultural development.