Toronto hosts Rwanda Day

Thousands of Rwandans and friends of Rwanda are today expected to descend on Toronto to attend Rwanda Day. According to the head of Rwandan community in Canada, Dr Egide Karuranga, hundreds are expected to cross over from US. “We’ve been running effective social media campaigns, with ads, and clips,” Karuranga told Saturday Times on Thursday, adding that besides Rwandans, even Canadian citizens had picked interest. Most of the attendees arrived yesterday while others are expected to arrive today. President Paul Kagame, who has graced all the four previous events is expected to attend this year’s edition. Several local companies will showcase their products at the event.Teta Isibo, the CEO of Inzuki Designs, a Rwandan brand specialising in jewellery, accessories and interior decor hand-made primarily from local materials, told Saturday Times that even though she did not travel to Toronto, she has arranged to “have somebody on the other end” to sell her unique products.Investing in future “We are very excited to be taking part of the Rwanda Day event. We will be exhibiting and selling our products which are a fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design,” Isibo said. “The Rwandan Diaspora is a large part of our target market and previous Rwanda Day events in which we participated have been quite successful for our business in terms of sales, networking and getting our brand name out there.”Rwanda Day, an event held in different countries around the world, brings together Rwandans and friends of Rwanda around the world to celebrate the country’s progress and discuss how best to contribute towards Rwanda’s socio-economic transformation.Today’s event will be held under the theme “Agaciro: Investing in Our Future.” During such gatherings, Rwandans interact and exchange views on how they can contribute to the vision of a modern, unified and prosperous Rwanda.Canada hosts between 13, 000 and 14, 000 Rwandans. After the Toronto event, Rwandans in Canada will also participate in Rwanda Week, a week-long event that will take place in Ottawa, another Canadian city at a later date.Previous Rwanda Day events were held in the American cities of Boston and Chicago, while in Europe the event has been held in Paris, France with the most recent having taken place in London, United Kingdom, in May.

National

Toronto hosts Rwanda Day