KIGALI - The First Lady, Mrs Jeannette Kagame, the founding president of Imbuto Foundation, has urged young Rwandans to directly participate in nation-building in order for the country to achieve its targets.

She made the call, yesterday, while officiating at a youth forum that brought together 300 Rwandans, aged between 25 and 40, from within and without the country. The forum was held under the theme "A New Dawn.”

"The country needs your strength and your commitment in order to achieve a bright future,” she said. "In order for the youth to contribute towards nation building we found out that the events in our history that were painful and discriminating Rwandans needed to be discussed and given a platform in this forum so that the youth can express themselves openly and share experiences.”

The First Lady added that the youth should use the forum as an opportunity to get the knowledge and capacity they need to build themselves and to represent a new dawn for the country.

Mrs Kagame urged the youth to work together and to collectively devise mechanisms of fighting tribalism, and to promote common identity.

"As you are all aware, the new dawn replaces the darkness. If we want to restore and build our country, the youth should first understand that the history we passed through is real and be able to fight its consequences. Everybody should put himself or herself into one’s shoes in order to understand and help each other towards building themselves and the nation,” she stressed.

Closing the two-day workshop, Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, urged young people to be agents of change and to spread the message to their peers in their communities.
He hailed the Imbuto Foundation for having organised the event.

The Minister of Youth, Protais Mitali, called upon the young generation to continue playing a big role towards promoting unity and reconciliation and to fight against genocide ideology.  "We should advocate for what brings us together as Rwandans instead of discriminating against ourselves,” he noted.

The UNFPA Rwanda Resident Representative, Victoria Akyeampong, promised continued support of the UN agency in promoting youth involvement with national development programmes.

The youths discussed, among others, the major historical events that resulted in the 1994 Genocide, and how best they can participate in moving the country forward. They also shared experiences with the aim of finding a common understanding.

Apart from the youths from within the country, the forum was attended by young Rwandans from China, Uganda, Zambia, Germany, Tanzania, Iceland, England, Belgium, France, Congo Brazaville, Burundi, Canada, among others.

Ends