What makes Rwanda clean?
What makes Rwanda clean? Rwanda is one of the cleanest destinations in Africa if not in the whole world. Most people /visitors always ask themselves the reason behind the cleanliness of Rwanda as a country. For visitors who have visited Kigali know how best and clean the city is and this extends to all provinces of Rwanda. Keeping Rwanda clean is every citizen’s responsibility and to effect this, the Rwanda government introduced the community service day for all the people of Rwanda where they would spend at least 3 hours doing the community service.
It is only in Rwanda in East and Central Africa where the local community comes together for the benefit of the community through doing the community work which you can call cleaning or community service. This was termed as the Umuganda campaign which was launched in Rwanda to bring the communities together for community work.
This was a culture even in Uganda of the local community getting together for common community goals. I remember in my Ankole Culture this was called ” Burungi Bwansya” where village leaders would hit drums on specific dates calling for people to come together and do community services work such as cleaning and constructing feeder roads, cleaning the wells, collecting stoned for project construction work such as schools and hospitals among others. But with time, this culture in Ankole Uganda has died out instead people collect some money for some to do all these services for them however there are still villages where this community attitude towards development is still going on.
In Rwanda, a country once hit by the genocide massacre in 1994 saw the need to bring togetherness to the communities especially those that were once torn away by the civil wars. After President Paul Kagame took over power he opted to bring back the old Rwandan traditions which had disappeared as this would also bring in a sense of togetherness to communities after the trauma they had for losing great friends and family members.
As the result, all the business and road services are shut on every last Saturday of the month and all the people are must participate in community service that involves cleaning their villages for 3 hours. It is mandatory to all the citizens and fail to comply there are legal implications faced. However, the people take as part of their culture and there is no need for force as this has become a culture for the people of Rwanda and people take it as an activity that benefits them. The supervision of this community service work is done by the community or village chairperson.
Community members who refuse to participate in community service in Rwanda face expulsion from the community or risk being fired from their jobs. In case of any absence of a community member from participating in the community work, he or she must report it from the community chairperson in advance for clearance.
The majority of the community member gather in bring numbers on this day dig water trenches, clean the road and water sources, and pick all the litter that would be around the community open places. Others can uproot the weeds that grow towards th6e roads or th6e buildings, collection of stones to prevent erosion and landslide. Professional works on this day offered some of the free services to the community. This activity however doesn’t involve young children but sometimes they are taken to see what their parents do like the way of learning.
Giving up to 3 hours a month to community service is an important step towards community service development. Throughout community services, we get to know our communities together and make a safe environment for the community and the country in general. Community service in Rwanda has yielded many benefits to the country and this is one of the reasons why Rwanda is one of the cleanest countries in the whole of Africa. It is only the people of the land that can make it clean other than anyone else. Travel and explore the safest travel destination in Rwanda on your safari trip.
