Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD), on Friday, launched a campaign to empower newly elected mediators with skills to solve community disputes.

The campaign, which kicked off with a two-day workshop, saw 48 mediators from Gatsata Sector, Gasabo District, trained on various laws, including that of expropriation, family and grassroots mediation.

"These people (mediators) have just taken over office after the mandate of those we trained elapsed, so we found it necessary to empower them with these skills,” RISD Programme Manager, James Daale, said.

He noted that it would be difficult for mediators to solve community disputes without acquiring any form of training on specific laws, adding that the training would later be extended to parts of the country.

He said the training was organised under the framework of the Land Dispute Management Project (LDMP),which aims at addressing land conflicts in the community.

Theobard Kanyamahanga, one of the  trainees, noted: "We have been guided on how to handle issues which form part of our activities like handling land disputes and family affairs” "It is beneficial to us since our operations will base on the skills we have acquired.

RISD aims to promote, advocate and foster social and economic transformation in Rwanda by Rwandans themselves, and to work towards poverty eradication, through a participatory sustainable approach.

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