Rwanda: Improving cooking facilities for more than 60,000 detainees
21-06-2013 News Release 13/108
Kigali (ICRC) – A new saucepan workshop, part of an innovative project in Huye Prison aiming to improve cooking facilities for around 60,000 prison inmates throughout the country, is being inaugurated today in the presence of the head of the Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS), the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Kigali, the mayor of Huye District and other public figures.
"Rwandan inmates can now look forward to having better cooking facilities," said Jacques Villettaz, head of the ICRC delegation in Kigali. "This will have an immediate and lasting impact on their welfare."
The project began in 2012 when the ICRC, working in partnership with the RCS, started building a special workshop for producing saucepans and a centralized kitchen-maintenance and stove-construction service covering all prisons under RCS authority. The workshop, which is the first significant achievement of the project, will be managed by RCS staff.
A 200 cubic-metre expansion of the biogas plant in Rubavu Prison is also set to be opened this year. The upgraded facility will result in enhanced environmental safety in and around the prison, and will provide a sustainable source of heating for cooking purposes. Other initiatives taken jointly by the RCS and the ICRC include the gradual introduction, currently under way, of chlorine production in each prison to boost hygiene standards.
ICRC delegates visit detainees in Rwanda to monitor the conditions in which they are being held and the treatment they receive. The ICRC works together with the RCS to improve the living standards of inmates throughout the country.
For further information, please contact:
Emmanuel Kagimbura, ICRC Kigali, tel: +250 78830 05 09