my name is frederick byumvuhore and i am a rwandan journalist working for the new times newspaper in my country, known as the land of a thousand hills.
rwanda is a landlocked country in eastern central africa with a population of 12 million people. a couple of years back, kibeho, which is a place of religious tourism in rwanda had access complications due to the near impassable roads connecting the area to the main tarmac road from huye district.
kibeho village is located in nyaruguru district in the southern province of rwanda. the area receives nearly 600,000 pilgrims from around the world each year, who flock there for an annual religious celebration known as "assumption day."
i was once assigned to cover this big religious event. unfortunately, reaching it was difficult due to the poor road networks. on my way to the site, i thought more about the guests than i did about myself.
my perception was that many international pilgrims would eventually stop visiting the site unless something was done. but thanks to china's belt and road initiative these are now issues of the past as china helped to accelerate rwanda's progress.
last year in july, during a historic visit by chinese president xi jinping to rwanda. xi and president kagame signed agreements as part of chinese belt and road initiative.
construction of the 66 km huye-nyaruguru tarmac road was one of these agreements, a move that impressed millions of rwandans.
under the initiative, the country's tallest buildings have appeared, while schools and hospitals have also been built across the country to boost education and healthcare.
the initiative has brought changes to rwanda in terms of job creation ensuring prosperity and harmonizing movement of people and goods. modern roads are expanding in kigali city and the countryside. bri involvement in the journey of rwanda's development shows prosperity and transformation of sustainable development and self-reliance in rwanda.
the author is a journalist with the new times newspaper, rwanda and is one of the participants for the 2019 china africa press centre programme.
