Kicukiro: Local Entrepreneurs, Civil Society Showcased thrilling innovations

Elias Hakizimana Jun 24, 2023 0 Comments

By Elias Hakizimana.

Various entrepreneurs and civil society organizations in Kicukiro district showcased their products and services to the public to foster homegrown solutions and eradicate poverty through public private partnership (PPP).

The exhibition that took place at Kicukiro district headquarters on Friday, June 23, 2023 was part of the annual open day event that is usually organized by the district’s Joint Action Development Forum (JADF), gathering together the district’s partners and stakeholders working in different developmental initiatives to exhibit innovative products and services aiming to promote citizen’s health and wealth.

Dream Village and its affiliated project ‘Rwanda Nook Hub’ are among the exhibitors with many innovative products and ideas to support Rwandan youth to graduate from poverty through empowering them with self-learning skills in vocational education.

Epimaque Utazirubanda, a Dream Village staff explains that they support youth through different initiatives that all aim to improve health and wellbeing of youth.

“We help youth who are HIV/AIDS positive from 0-27 years of age, we advise them on prevention, treatment and besides, we have other initiatives targeting youth employment where they come to our self-learning center (Rwanda Nook Hub) to acquire vocational training, we give them access to computer and internet as the facilities to help them learn, and they are able to produce physical materials in only three months,” Utazirubanda says.

Some of the best innovations these young boys and girls showcased include a five-in-one chair, a chair-in-a bed and many other projects.

**The five-in-one chair produced by children at Rwanda Nook Hub in Gahanga sector who were trained under the self-learning initiative.**

“You can use this bed as a chair at night, or as a chair itself when you have guest at home, we have also bamboo project and moringa product, we help farmers to grow this crop that is very helpful for human health,” he adds.

He says that they expect fruitful results from the exhibition.

“We believe various beneficiaries and partners will get to know what we do, someone would like to embrace our initiatives and we welcome any contributing idea towards the success of our journey,” Utazirubanda says, requesting the district to help them address some challenges including lack of enough materials for the youth to practice what they learn from the self-learning center.

**The all-in-one (chair and bed). This was also produced by children at Rwanda Nook Hub in Gahanga sector who were trained under the self-learning initiative.**

The exhibition served as a good platform for local civil society and business operators to discuss improvement and partnerships.

The JADF Exhibition 2022-2023 was held under the theme “The Role of a Partner in helping a citizen graduate from poverty”.

Other innovators who talked to The Inspirer

Deogratias Tumutuyimana, Director General of Canarimwe Style Stove Limited, the company that produces energy saving cooking stoves in Gatenga sector, Kicukiro district said that innovators still lack support to expand their productions.

**Deogratias Tumutuyimana, Director General of Canarimwe Style Stove Limited holding one of the produced stoves.**

“Our financial investment capacity is still limited, but there is a reason to celebrate achievements so far, I started with the capacity to produce only one stove and now I can sell 100 stoves per month,” he said.

Antoine Mutsinzi, Kicukiro District Executive Administrator (DEA) said that collaboration with the district partners helped in fast tracking achievements and performance of contracts (IMIHIGO) with an example of Mituelle de Sante contribution, Ejoheza long-term saving scheme.

Kicukiro district has a total of 288 partners working in different pillars such as finance, welfare and good governance, the big number of them are concentrated in citizens’ welfare.