The Rwanda Association of Passenger Transport (ATPR) and Butaro Hospital on Thursday donated food and money to vulnerable residents in Rubavu and Burera Districts respectively.

The transport Association gave four tons of foodstuffs that included two tons of rice and two tons of maize flours while staff of Butaro Hospital in Burera District raised Rwf450,000 to support 28 most vulnerable households living in the vicinity of the hospital.

The donation beneficiaries are mainly those who used to make a living through daily wages, officials said.

Informal cross border traders in Rubavu district, which are dominated by women, are some of the most hit business operators by the pandemic after Rwanda announced restriction of movement across its borders with neighboring countries.

Théoneste Mwunguzi, who heads ATPR said that they were inspired by the government's call to help the most severely vulnerable members of society to cope with the economic consequences of COVID-19.

"We raised funds to buy foodstuffs for needy residents from this district (Rubavu) after learning that a number of residents were affected by the lockdown, among those severely affected are some personnel whom we used to works together,” He said

Mwunguzi went on to say that besides Rubavu District, ATPR was also set to reach out to Nyarugenge and Nyaruguru District with foodstuffs to support the needy residents who were affected by the lockdown.

ATPR is made of 26 transport cooperatives operating in all provinces of the country, however, the cooperatives suspended their operations ever since the Government announced a lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19.