Howard Buffett to support Congolese refugees

Howard G. Buffett, an American philanthropist, has pledged to help Congolese refugees currently living the country’s camps repatriate. Buffett made the pledge yesterday at Gihembe Refugee Camp in Gicumbi District where he landed after an aerial visit to various refugee camps in the country. Howard Buffett (L) with Permanent secretary in the Refugees and Disaster management Ministry Antoine Ruvebana tour Gihembe refugee camp yesterday. “I have seen that they have some basic infrastructure like water and schools, but when people are not in their homes they do not feel comfortable,” Buffett said. “We helped some of their daughters to pursue secondary education, but this is not enough. I will make advocacy to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) so that they can be repatriated and I will keep supporting them from Congo,” he pledged. Howard Buffett tours a mushroom growing project in Gihembe refugee camp yesterday. Buffett supports girl child education in Rwandan refugee camps providing them with school fees and other scholarstic materials through the Howard Graham Buffett Foundation (HGBF) that works in nearly 80 countries worldwide. The Foundation has sponsored 437 girls in refugee camps across the country. Among those sponsored, 397 of them have already completed secondary studies with 21 employed as teachers, while 23 are pursuing university education, four are working with non-governmental organisations as social workers, and others employed in both private and public institutions. Howard Buffett tours some income generating activities in Gihembe refugee camp yesterday. Those who managed to complete their secondary studies appreciate the support, but some said they needed more support to improve their welfare. Asifiwe Kanyange, one of the 76 girls in Gihembe camp who completed secondary school, said: “I am glad to have completed secondary school, but I wish I had more support to further my studies.” One of the women in the mushroom growing project in Gihembe refugee camp. “I am now employed as a teacher. I use my salary to cater for my family but our welfare could improve further if I got a chance to pursue university studies,” Kanyange said. Ever since the Foundation started helping the refugees in December 2009, Buffett has already injected over $600,000 in the project. Some residents of the camp said they wished the government and stakeholders could increase the money for subsistence to meet current market prices. Howard Buffett tours Gihembe refugee camp yesterday. “We are each allocated Rwf200 daily for subsistence. We wish the money was increased,” said Rwamajonge Munyangoboka, an elderly man who arrived at the camp in 1997 from Masisi, DR Congo. Between 1991 and 2011, HGBF invested $100 million in Africa’s Great Lakes region to support conservation, agriculture and economic development. When conflict reignited in Congo in 2012, it set out to help secure lasting peace and spur economic development. Student beneficiaries of Howard G. Buffett Foundation wish their sponsor happy birth day in Gihembe refugee camp yesterday. (Photos by John Mbanda) Currently, Buffett serves on the corporate boards of Berkshire Hathaway, an investment holding company; Coca Cola; Lindsay Corporation; and Sloan Implement. He is the director of Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational conglomerate holding company run by his father Warren Buffett, that is the fifth largest public company in the world, and he is a major sponsor of the World Food Programme (WFP). editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Howard Buffett to support Congolese refugees