After months of fundraising campaign by the Rwandan Diaspora in a project that was dubbed ‘Bye Bye Nyakatsi,’ organizers have said construction of the model village for the needy will soon kick-off.

The Project aims at constructing 500 housing units to be handed to disadvantaged and poor families in Bugesera District, under the campaign aimed at eradicating thatched houses.

Speaking to The New Times, the Secretary General of the Rwanda Diaspora Global Network, Dr. Ismael Buchanan who heads the campaign said that all preparations to start the construction in Bugesera are near completion.

"We are now finalizing with collecting the pledges that we were given for this project and we are planning to begin the second phase of construction as soon as possible,” said Buchanan.

The fundraising project was involved in canvassing funds from the members of the Diaspora in the first phase. Funds were also collected from the recently concluded Bye Bye Nyakatsi Expo and pledges from various corporate companies.

"We have collected some money with which we are going to begin the second phase as we wait for more to come,” said Buchanan without mentioning the actual amount they were able to collect from the expo.

The 500 houses are budgeted to each cost between Rwf3 and 5 million upon completion and their construction is estimated to taka a period of one year.

Buchanan called upon the private sector and government to help them make the project a reality by giving them more funds.

The Diaspora is also behind the One-Dollar campaign that collected funds to build hostels for thousands of Genocide orphans.

The construction of the hostel is currently on-going.

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