22/06/10 - Chris Kelly MP to return to Rwanda on social action project Umubano

Chris Kelly MP has announced that he will be returning to the central African country of Rwanda during the first week in August to, once again, take part in the Conservative Party's social action project Umubano with the now Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt. Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP.

Mr Kelly, who attended Project Umubano for a fortnight in the summer of 2008, commented: "I am very much looking forward to returning to Rwanda to see how the country has developed in the two years since my last visit. I am particularly looking forward to paying a return visit to the village of Kinyinya to meet up with the orphans and widows of the genocide who we helped with the building of a community centre and outdoor play area and gardens. This time the Rwandan charity with whom we work has asked us to concentrate on English teaching so I will be taking a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course in July.

"Despite the economic problems we currently have here in the UK I believe it is important to always remember those less fortunate than ourselves. That is why I have given up my summer holiday for the last three years to travel on self-funded social action projects to Rwanda and Srebrenica, both scenes of horrific genocides in the 1990s. In comparison to the suffering people in such places have endured we in the UK have so much to be grateful for."

Project Umubano is now in its fourth year in Rwanda & Sierra Leone. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has participated in the project having travelled to Rwanda in 2007 when he was Leader of the Opposition. The project is entirely self financed with no subsidy from the taxpayer or Parliament; Mr Kelly will, once again, be paying for his own flight, TEFL training and all his own in-country costs whilst in Rwanda.

Click here for Chris Kelly's report from Project Umubano 2008 and click here for his report from a UNHCR refugee camp in the country.