From March 31- April 5, 2018 the Association of Student Survivors of the Genocide (AERG) and graduate members of the same organisation (GAERG) constructed three houses, rehabilitated three others and donated five dairy cows to vulnerable Genocide survivors in Rubavu and Nyanza districts in Western and Southern provinces, respectively.

Two of the five cows were given to individuals who saved Tutsi in the two districts at the height of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

After the week’s activities, the students last week retired to their farm at Karama, Karangazi Sector, Nyagatare District in Eastern Province a piece of land that was donated by President Kagame in 2012 to all student Genocide survivors.

The 120-hectare farm is located in the area where the Rwanda Patriotic Army trained its soldiers during the liberation struggle.

Most members of the two associations do not have family and the farm in Nyagatare is home to many of them.

At the farm, Rosemary Mbabazi, the Minister of Youth, called upon the students to uphold to the country’s values and norms, including helping the vulnerable and thanking individuals who played their role in saving Tutsis, in 1994.

"I ask you to keep up the spirit of charity and being grateful because they’re our values” she said.

Mbabazi urged the youth to make the land profitable and promised the ministry’s help whenever needed.

"The President’s donation demonstrates the confidence the country has in you. Start showing that our optimism is not in vain by maximising the land you were given,” she said.

The Executive Secretary, Eastern Province, Kizito Habimana, urged AERG to think big and start from the little they have.

"The history of the country requires us to work extraordinarily and become billionaires from nothing”.

Christian Bizimana, the assistant coordinator, AERG, said the association was planning to turn the land into a model farm that other farms in the country could learn from.

He added that they were currently working with the Government and other partners to modernise the farm and promised that by this time next year they will have had more economic activities on the farm.

Currently, the farm has 85 heads of cattle, 74 goats, and about five hectares of banana plantation.

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