Editor,Please allow me to respond to the story, "Govt to sign contracts with VUP beneficiaries”, (The New Times, October 23).I commend the efforts of the Government of Rwanda in promoting  innovations that seek to improve the social welfare of vulnerable citizens. After reading this article, I started wondering why the former regimes couldn’t come up with the idea, but I came to understand the reason: they spent all those decades preparing for the extermination of a section of their people!What a shame!Now that we have a government that truly works for its citizens, all I can say is that only the sky’s the limit. What else should I tell my countrymen?Let’s learn to be self-reliant with view to graduating from external aid. We need to work even harder to grow our economy and continue to improve our living conditions. One thing we are sure of is the continued government support. Rugamba, Kigali

Editor: VUP is a national anti-poverty scheme, through which the poor receive varying levels of support from government, including direct cash to the most disadvantaged households each month.