Kigali, 20 July 2011
The second day of the 3rd Conference of the African Sanitation and Hygiene Conference, was highlighted by a dinner gala hosted by President Kagame. One of the prominent participants and well known ambassador of sanitation for children, Yvonne Chaka Chaka started off the evening by sharing her impressions of Kigali with the participants: “when one arrives in Kigali and witnesses the cleanliness, we can say that we could not have chosen a better place than Kigali to host this conference.”
In addition to the widely recognized cleanliness of Kigali, Yvonne Chaka Chaka also pointed at leadership as one of the reasons she believes Rwanda is succeeding in reaching hygiene and sanitation targets. “When you have a leader who walks the talk, it is easy for communities to follow” she added.
President Kagame began by thanking the African Sanitation Conference for their award and reminded the delegates that the hygiene and sanitation goals are “a restatement of what Africans have always held to be the right values.” Restating Rwanda’s commitment to achieving MDG goals, President Kagame emphasized that “we do not need donor support to clean our own streets, our own backyards….and ultimately the responsibility for answers to our challenges must come from and be owned by us.”
The evening ended with additional African Sanitation awards with winners including Rwanda Environment Care, the Mayor of Ouagadougou, Professor Sandy Caincross. Public private partnerships that led to an increase in hand washing were also presented to the Government of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana.
For more pictures of this evening, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulkagame/sets/72157627119257027/