The year of the genocide, machetes, exterminated Tutsi, the indifference of the western world, refugees in Congo, Uganda and Tanzania, the year of the orphans, the year of before and after.
And a generation born between 1994 and 1999 must face an often unconditional development, none or many opportunities, mental problems of relatives and friends resulting from the genocide. The country is over populated, with about 13 million inhabitants in a territory as large as Sicily Nearly 540,000 university graduates are forced to long periods of unemployment or to accept humble jobs due to lack of opportunities. Therefore, there is no planning policy that allow the new generations to take place into the labor market once the studies have been completed. As reported by the Caritas of Ruhengeri and Avsi, an Italian NGO working in Rwanda since 1994, a large number of young people choose to study in professional schools to learn crafts such as carpenter, mason, welder, plumber and electrician while women prefer to train as seamstresses. Thanks to the support of projects of the same organization, aimed mainly at the orphans of the genocide, small companies of two or three workers were born trying to make space in the rural areas. 80% of the economy is directed to agriculture, almost exclusively subsistence. Jardin De Los Ninos Onlus, an association of Padua, which deals with micro-credit projects in agriculture for women, observes that there are cultural heritage that prevents single mothers or widows from being re-seen by the community they belong to.
Since then President Kagame, leader of the FRP (Rwandan Patriotic Front) who liberated the country from the madness of the genocide, has undertaken a series of development policies aimed at foreign investors, the environment and new technologies, especially in large urban centers, like the capital Kigali and Ruhengeri, a tourist reference to visit the gorillas. Foreign investments now amount to 1.5 billion dollars, boosting huge financial transactions and defining it as Switzerland of Africa. The GDP of Rwanda grew by an average of 8.3% between 2002 and 2009, with a peak of 11.5% in subsequent years. The data make the idea of a development that is truly tangible and concrete. To give an example: the territory is pacified, in the parliament it is composed for 60% by women, a percentage that exceeds the Swedish one and the whole capital is covered by the wi-fi service. From this year the government is aiming at a massive development of tourism, as shown by the $ 40 million invested as a sponsor in the premier league, becoming one of the main sponsors of the Arsenal team.
In terms of community life, however, tensions are still palpable, attenuated by the action of the government that in addition to controlling the country with a system of regular police forces communities to actions of mutual aid and respect for the environment It is the case of the Umuganda. Every last Saturday of the month the inhabitants must either clean the area in which they live or help someone in the community in particular economic difficulty. In the end the reports and actions to be planned are drawn up in the assemblies controlled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Presidential party of President Kagame.