Kigali City Council has pledged to extend financial support to former sex workers, female beggars and vendors in the city for them to start small income generating activities as they integrate into normal life.

Kigali Mayor, Dr Aisa Kirabo said this yesterday at the official opening of a ten-day solidarity camp for over 250 women at Red Cross head-quarters in Kacyiru.

According to Kirabo, the women, who have been held at different transit centres in the city by the mobile police unit, will be given loans in the second phase of training after initiating their own projects.

"In reality these women were arrested as they tried to earn a living and this is why we thought of designing for them descent means of earning their living,” Kirabo said.

She urged them to be focused on what they will be taught during the training, where they will gain skills in designing better projects that will be financed by KCC and supervised by Executive Secretaries of their respective sectors of residence.

The Minister of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), Jeanne a’Arc Mujawamariya, urged the women to use the knowledge they will acquire to plan for their future and abandon begging and indecent jobs to develop themselves and their country.

She recommended forming cooperative societies as the best way to achieve their targets in the shortest time possible.

"You should not focus on concentrating your businesses only here in the city because there are many opportunities in villages,” Mujawamariya advised.

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