Sunday 1 September 2013

Rwanda: Pitching In

I mentioned in the previous post how clean Rwanda is. The people here take great pride in their country and they work hard to keep it up to high standards.

One interesting thing they do is called umuganda, where everyone in the country pitches in for the morning and does community service.  It could be by picking up garbage, cutting grass and trimming bushes along roads, or repairing public facilities. People might even work together to build a house for a person who wouldn't be able to do it on his own. People with particular skills offer their services for free on this day.  For example, doctors may offer free medical examination. Umuganda happens the last Saturday of every month between 8 am and 11 am, and it is expected that everyone between 18 and 65 participate in some way.

It's something to think about. How much better would our city be if we each gave up three hours a week to work for our community? What type of work would you do?

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