Bicycles to promote hygiene in Gisagara and Huye

HUYE — The Water and Sanitation Extension Programme in Southern Province (PEPAPS) has donated bicycles to 28 mobilisers from Gisagara and Huye districts. At the handover ceremony last Friday, Goreth Buhiga, the programme coordinator, said the bicycles are meant to simplify movement of the recipients as well as act as a kind of motivation. “We want to facilitate their movement from one village to another. Riding on bikes will not only ease their task but also it will increase the number of villages they can cover,” Buhiga said. She urged the recipients to intensify their mobilisation work in order to change residents’ attitudes towards gender, water and sanitation. “Residents should be provided with clean drinking water, but they need first to be ready to use it and have a capacity to preserve it. This requires a change in attitudes,” Buhiga stated. The beneficiaries said the bicycles are a motivation that will surely improve the results of their work. “There are many inaccessible regions in my working area. With the bike I hope to reach many zones and hold meetings on time,” Fidèle Ugirimana of Gikonko sector, Gisagara district said. Local leaders in Huye and Gisagara districts asked the mobilisers to put more efforts in sanitation campaigns, revealing that this is still an issue that needs to be addressed. The water and sanitation project which works under the Ministry of Infrastructure was initiated two years ago, with an objective of improving drinking water supply and the hygiene conditions of rural populations in three districts Nyaruguru, Huye and Gisagara. Ends