Most pictures by Janek Lenz, Some pictures by John Manishimwe, Design of stand and flyers partly by Hannah Bilgenroth
RDIS organization as a partner of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) participated in this year’s German Christmas Market 2019 (#germanchristmasmarket2019) which took place at the SOS Hermann-Gmeiner Primary School, Kacyiru in Kigali Rwanda, from 16th to 17th November 2019.
As it was planned, the event was inaugurated by two guests of honour; the Ambassador of Germany to Rwanda Dr Thomas Kurz and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Michel Sebera, followed by a musical performance.
Figure 1: Staff members who worked on the stand received a big support from the leader of EPR Church Rev Dr Pascal Bataringaya and his wife
In his opening speech, the German ambassador said; “Entrepreneurship development is a major focus of German Development Cooperation in Rwanda. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important factors for countries and societies in bringing about economic development while protecting the environment”. He continued by elaborating the importance of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in development. Ambassador Dr Kurz closed his opening remarks by wishing all visitors to enjoy the food, mulled-wine and various products that were presented by Rwandan partners.
Figure 2: Ambassador of Germany to Rwanda Dr Thomas Kurz and his wife informing themselves about RDIS and APRED-RGL activities at our stand
On the other hand, in his opening speech, the guest of honour from Rwandan Government, the PS of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Michel Sebera thanked everyone present for positively responding to the invitation by GiZ and other organizers of the event. He said, the event has been organized by the German Development Cooperation since 2016, making this to be the 4th event. He closed his opening speech by thanking all organizers of the event.
The German Christmas Market in Kigali has evolved to become a good opportunity for partners of German Development Cooperation to meet, exchange ideas and to market their products.
As such, both, Rural Development Inter-diocesan Service (RDIS) organization and APRED-RGL organization as important partners of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) were well represented at this annual event in Kigali, not only to promote our projects and products, but also to promote the good and long-term collaboration between UEM and its member Churches in Rwanda, namely, the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR) and four dioceses of the Anglican Church of Rwanda (EAR): Butare, Cyangugu, Kigeme and Shyogwe. At the same time, RDIS organization and APRED-RGL organization are supported by United Evangelical Mission (UEM) and Bread for the World/EED.
Figure 3: Some views of the exhibition from our stand
The aim of the German Christmas Market in Kigali is to offer an opportunity for partner organizations to showcase positive results of the German Development Cooperation in Rwanda, with a special focus on areas of productivity and skills development, while creating an additional income for the partner organisations.
We therefore utilized this opportunity to inform the visitors about our projects and to sell our products such as our distinguished Ceramic Water Filters, Improved Cook Stoves, Solar Home Systems and juices/nectars/jams from Unite de Transformation Semi Industrielle (UTSI) Ltd –the juice factory that is also owned by the Anglican Church in Rwanda (Shyogwe diocese) to create markets and to promote “Made in Rwanda” products.
The event in this year attracted about 1,700 visitors. It is therefore a good opportunity for us to present freely some our projects and products to this big audience. We also utilized the event to strengthen and/or to establish new networks and collaborations with other organizations that are based in Rwanda such as World Food Program (WFP) branch in Kigali, Senior Expert Services (SES) office in Kigali, GiZ Office in Rwanda, Partnership "Jumelage" Rhineland-Palatinate / Rwanda, etc.
Figure 4: The live musical performance was another important attraction during the event
The German Christmas Market is jointly co-organised by the German Embassy in Rwanda, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GiZ) GmbH, the SOS Children’s Village, Goethe Institute, KfW, Savings Banks Finance Group, United Evangelical Mission (UEM), and the Senior Expert Services (SES).
Some important links and social media handles: https://facebook.com/vemission/ ; http://vemission.org ; https://facebook.com/GermanXmasKigali/ ; https://twitter.com/GcmKigali ; www.rdis.org.rw ; https://twitter.com/RDISforRwanda ; https://www.facebook.com/RDISforRwanda ; @RDISforRwanda; #VEMission; #germanchristmasmarket2019;
See also photo album here: http://rdis.org.rw/photoalbum-gcm-2019
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