Students of Mt Kenya University (MKU) Rwanda, yesterday, handed over pay slips for electricity connection fees to widows and orphans in Fumbwe Sector in Rwamagana district.The support is part of a campaign the school launched last month to help victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.“With electricity, we can now start businesses such as saloons and our children will also be able to revise their books at night,” said Alice Uwimana, one of the beneficiaries.With a smile on her face, Uwimana explained that their houses had electricity connections installed by the Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA) but they failed to raise Rwf 56,000 each for the electricity.“Today, is a landmark in our lives because we have started a new chapter in life,” she said.The beneficiaries who include women and children, are among 205 people that AVEGA-Agahozo, an Association for Genocide Widows, built houses for in 1997.The students also donated clothes and shoes while the school management gave a university scholarship to one of the children who dropped out of school four years ago.Speaking on behalf of the students, Joseph Furaha Nkurunziza, said the funds were raised jointly with the school.“We raised some money from a sports competition that we organised last month and the school supplemented what we had raised so that we could implement this project,” he said.A representative of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), James Nzirimu, commended MKU administration and students for the initiative.He said the move is in line with government’s programme of supporting or empowering the needy to fight poverty.
