Needy people living in Gatsibo district urge officials to equally distribute the aid aimed at helping needy people. They base their claim on the fact that needy teenagers aged more than 18 are not entitled to receive such aid. Locals affirm that this is not fair as the experience has shown that there is some of the needy people aged more than 18 years who imperatively need the VUP support.
The VUP (Vision Umurenge Program) is one of the governmental policies aimed at helping poor people to rise from hardship and improve their livelihoods.
According to the locals, the age should not hinder the needy people from receiving the aid they deserve.
One of them called Beatrice Ishemaryabakobwa said that choosing poor people to receive the aid was done with the emotional touch.
She added that this manner of choosing brought in negative consequences as some of the locals are undermined by the hardship.
How can an elderly and needy woman can be hindered from receiving the aid simply because she is older than 18 years, she wondered.
Ishemaryabakobwa has also been denied the access to this aid while she is a HIV/AIDS positive and physically disabled.
She is not listed among the persons worthy to receive the aid.
This hurts me a lot, she is quoted as saying.
The Bushobora cell official Athanase Munyakayanza said he is concerned about the fact that this manner of denying the aid to people older than 18 years has negatively affected people’s lives.
The VUP manager in Gatsibo district, James Gatunge defined the VUP as a poverty reduction policy that concerns only the neediest families.
Thus, this policy excludes family composed of people who can work for money either through cultivating for money or other profit making activity.
In order to help the needy family members, the VUP provides them with temporary jobs to do and get paid accordingly so that the beneficiaries might have financial to survive and develop.
UM– USEKE.RW
