Weekly review

Kagame meets with MDG advocates President Paul Kagame, co-chair of the MDG advocacy group, and UN Secretary General Ban-ki-moon, on Wednesday participated in the second meeting of the group that comprises eminent personalities selected to support the UN Secretary General to build political will to accelerate progress on the MDG’s. The eight MDG’s seek to end poverty and hunger, achieve universal education, secure gender quality, improve child health, and boost maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability and attain global partnership on development. French school re-opens The Kigali French School, also known as Ecole Antoine de Saint Exupéry (EFASE), has re-opened after four years. The school was closed in 2006 following the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Rwanda and France. The school operates on a French education curriculum and their school year begins in September and ends in July.Land owners given a second chance Kigali City Council (KCC) will not auction plots whose owners have a clear strategy of securing funds to commence construction works a senior city official said. The vice mayor in charge of finance and economic development, Alphonse Nizeyimana told The New Times mid this week that land owners with justifiable reasons such as loan applications that are yet to mature will be given time to secure money to develop plots.Recently the Council announced its plans to auction plots on land that has been redundant for at least three years. Biruta chairs the first ICGLR session The Senate President, Dr.Vincent Biruta, returned from Khartoum, Sudan, after chairing the first session of the Forum of Parliamentarians of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR). The meeting was attended by 12 member States. Rwanda currently holds the chairmanship of the forum. Leaders given ultimatum on Distribution of ID’sSector Executive Secretaries have been given a one month ultimatum to clear piles of national IDs that are lying in their offices. This was revealed on Wednesday by the Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, at the end of a one-day meeting in which he met provincial governors and the vice mayor of Kigali City. The minister instructed the executive secretaries to issue all the IDs that are piling up at their offices and draw up a list of ID bearers who have relocated, adding that the remaining IDs will be returned to the National ID Project for follow up. Before the August Presidential elections, it had been estimated that over 500,000 people had not yet received their IDs and yet they had registered. Districts receive over Rwf 120m for needy Children The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion has disbursed Rwf 122,748,645 to 10 districts to support orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) to help their households’ to start some income generating activities. Gender Minister, Dr. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, said that more than 500 vulnerable families will be given cows, goats, rabbits and tuition. Others will be trained in bee-keeping, fish farming, pineapple and maize growing, tailoring, among other skills. Several development partners are supporting the five-year project which kicked off in 2008. Journalists set up anti-corruption committee A three-day media workshop on corruption concluded on Wednesday, with participants appointing a journalists’ committee that will spearhead the media’s work in the fight against corruption in the country. The committee will work closely with the Ombudsman’s Office. Assumani Niyonambaza, the chief editor of Rugari newspaper was elected to head the committee. Participants said they had acquired important skills from the workshop and pledged to tackle the vice. Ends