Ruhengeri / Rwanda

In 1983, the Konz association of municipalities established a partnership with the Rwandan municipality of Kigombe. Kigombe was merged with the other municipalities in the Ruhengeri area as part of a municipal reform in Rwanda in spring 2001. From this point on, the partner of the Konz association was the city of Ruhengeri.

The administrative divisions of Rwanda were reformed again on January 1, 2006. Since then, the Muhoza and Rwaza sectors in the Musanze district in the northern province of Rwanda have been new partners of the Konz association of municipalities. The partnership is managed solely by the administration. There is neither a partnership committee nor a circle of friends. Since 1983, the municipality of Konz can look back on considerable success in partnership work .

The focus of the "development aid" provided so far has been the improvement of basic education:

• Construction and repair work at the primary schools Gahondogo, Nyamagumba, Bukane,
• Equipping the primary schools of Kigombe with school furniture and teaching materials,
• Construction of the IHOZO preschool. With this project we have broken new ground. The proximity to the National University in Nyakinama was the reason and guarantee for the success of this pilot project.
• Construction and equipment of 6 classrooms and installation of a toilet facility with 6 cubicles and a rainwater cistern at the Cyabagarura primary school in the Muhoza sector, Musanze district, North province, in co-financing with the state of Rhineland-Palatinate
• Follow-up project at the Cyabagarura primary school: Construction of 6 more classrooms, a toilet facility and a rainwater cistern with the financial participation of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Gymnasium Konz.

Pre-professional and vocational training (equipping a school workshop, funding a vocational school and building a car training workshop) were also part of our support program, as was improving the hygienic conditions of the central market in Ruhengeri and supporting the municipal administration with office machines and office supplies.

Because of the warlike events in north-west Rwanda, the connection to the partner community had been severed since 1997. It was not until the beginning of 1999 that we were able to continue our support and dedicate ourselves directly to the promotion of craftsmen. A carpenter's cooperative, which previously had to work outdoors and was only temporarily protected against the very frequent rainfall, was given its own handicraft hall.

In 2013, facilities for the disabled were funded for the first time:

• Support for the disabled people's cooperative KOMEZUBUTWARI - promotion of the pig breeding project including a training unit on pig husbandry and bookkeeping
• Support for the Fair Children/Youth Foundation for the benefit of deaf and dumb children in the neighboring sector of the partner sector of the Konz community, Nyange, Musanze district - Funding of the goat project by the Saarburg Rotary Club, mediated by the Konz community administration, as there was no project worthy of funding in our partner sector at the time was present.

We would also like to point out that all the projects that have been implemented were submitted to us as inquiries and requests from the grassroots (the municipality via the partnership office and the Ministry of the Interior, for Sport and Infrastructure).

school partnerships

In addition to the partnership of the Konz municipality, there are also connections between the following schools:

• Realschule plus with Ecole Primaire de Karwasa
• Gymnasium Konz - initially with CERAI Ruhengeri and from 1997 Ecole Secondaire Saint Vincent Muhoza