The Rwandan High Commission to Ghana at the weekend launched in Accra a programme to help improve the sanitation situation in the country.

Dubbed “Umuganda,” the Commission on every last Saturday of the month will embark on a tree planting and clean-up exercise in selected communities in Accra.

To begin the programme, the Commission last Saturday planted trees, swept, desilted, and weeded around the surroundings of the High Commission at Dzorwulu in the Ayawaso West Municipality.

Speaking at the launch, the Rwandan High Commissioner, DrAisaKiraboKacyira, said the programme formed part of the “Operation Clean Your Frontage” recently launched by President Nana AddoDankwaAkufo-Addo.

She said “Operation Clean Your Frontage” would be successful if all the citizens actively participated in the programme.

The High Commissioner said the Umuganda programme was to mobilise people in the grassroots to help promote a healthy environment.

Umuganda is a Kinyarwanda word in Rwanda that means “coming together in a common purpose to achieve an outcome.”

“We are here this morning to launch Umuganda. Umuganda is a cultural heritage of Rwandans.  Today we are very delighted and honoured that we are launching it in Ghana, and we are launching it at the time when we are going through COVID-19 crises,” she said.

The Rwandan High Commissioner said Umuganda was to support the efforts of President Akufo-Addo to beautify the environment and increase afforestation.

The High Commissioner said as part of the programme, the Commission would educate the public on the need to keep the environment clean and the acts which polluted the environment.

DrKacyira said Rwandans had mobilised themselves and built classrooms for their children to study in better environments, built homes for vulnerable members and paved dusty neighbourhood roads with asphalt, contributing to improved standards of life.

The Commissioner commended the Ayawaso West Assembly for embracing and supporting the Umugandaprogramme.

The Municipal Chief Executive of Ayawaso East, Mrs Sandra Owusu-Ahenkorah, said “Cleaning Ghana and keep Accra Clean,” and “Operation Clean your Frontage” were some of the initiatives being pursued by the government to keep the country clean.

She pledged the Assembly’s commitment to the programme to make it succeed, saying “please do well to call on us anytime and any day.  We are very happy to have the Rwandan High Commission in our Municipality.”

A representative of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Joseph Obeng-Poku, in his remarks commended the Rwandan High Commission for the initiative.

“I want to take this opportunity to urge everyone here to see this greenery and cleaning as a priority so that in the shortest possible time we can be the cleanest city in Africa. Let us collaborate with the Umuganda initiative and colleagues from Rwanda to have a clean Africa,” he said.