Vice Chairman of itorero task force William Ntidendereza
The Vice chairman of the civic training academy, William Ntidendereza, has said that the national services volunteerism initiative that is in the pipeline is not forced labor.
He explained that those who will participate in such exercises will be operating in different cells and will be working few hours.
The general aim of national service is to act as a catalyst role for realization of the EDPRS, MDGs targets and vision 2020 development aspiration.
Ntidendereza was speaking on Thursday during a consultative meeting in Kigali on volunteerism policy and national service program.
Members of the civic training academy locally known as itorero ry’igihugu and local and foreign stake holders, converged in the meeting to brainstorm on issues pertaining to starting volunteerism initiative in the country and dispersing the trained persons called the chosen (intore) to different parts of the country to train others.
This volunteerism initiative was put under the charge of the Itorero ry’igihugu. The volunteerism policy was recently approved by the cabinet meeting.
Ntidendereza says that the services will not go beyond 12 noon, and participants will be operating in cells near their home areas.
Mr. Ntidendereza explained that national service program existed even during the ancient times of Rwanda, where ancestors volunteered in war.
At the start, it is estimated that close to 30,000 students from all the districts in the country will participate in the training. These will later volunteer in different cells training other students.
National service has two categories; compulsory category, which has people between 18 to 35 years and voluntary category of people between 36 years and above.