The one dollar campaign aimed at raising funds to accommodate homeless Genocide survivors has collected close to Rwf100 million, its coordinator told The New Times. “Things have changed from yesterday (Tuesday) and right now, in total, from both the Diaspora and here in the country, we are nearing one hundred million Rwandan francs,” Karara said. The 100-day long fundraising campaign launched April 4 intends to raise funds for building accommodation facilities for about 500 students – homeless orphans of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Karara said the total amount of collections from all circles stood at Rwf 99.5 million but added that this amount could exceed 100 million as more pledges continue to flow in. According to Karara, the top five Diaspora contributors are the UK (Rwf 8m), Sudan (Rwf 6.8m), china (Rwf 4m), Burundi (Rwf 3.5m) Liberia and Tanzania both tying at about Rwf 2.9m. The RDGN boss also noted that the Diaspora community in the Netherlands has pledged to provide a water treatment system valued at approximately 2,500 euros. Sweden as well agreed to provide all the necessary furniture for the students’ housing project. In the country, particularly in the provinces, Karara noted that many activities were still underway but over Rwf 56m had been counted. Northern province collected Rwf 7.5m, South Rwf 1.1m , East Rwf 9m and Rwf 2.2m from Kigali. The figure from the western province is yet to be provided. Karara expects the money count to rise further ahead of upcoming events, especially the fundraising soccer match that will feature famed African stars in an All-Africa star team against the country’s Amavubi stars in Kigali on June 22. The likes of Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o Fils and Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba are expected in the country soon for the match. Others expected to feature in the star-studded African side include Barcelona’s Yaya Toure, Galatasaray’s Rigobert Song, Arsenal’s Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alexander Song. Ends
