Over the past two weeks, Survivors Fund (SURF) has been working with the community group of Project Umubano, the two week international social action programme of the UK Conservative Party.

A group of 10 members of the 100-strong delegation in Rwanda has been undertaking an intensive capacity building exercise with nine of SURF’s partner organisations (Uyisenga N’Manzi, Kanyarwanda, IBUKA, AVEGA (Central, Eastern Region, Western Region), AERG, GAERG, Solace Ministries), providing support and training on the development of programme proposals to deliver projects in the fields of solar power, gender-based violence, and bicycle transport.

The partners submitted a written application and budget following field research and consultation with beneficiaries, and presented their final proposals to a panel of dignitaries which included H.E Ben Llewellyn-Jones, British High Commissioner to Rwanda, and Stephen Crabb MP, Leader of Project Umubano.

Over the course of the two weeks, training sessions have been delivered by the Umubano team members on subjects including budgeting and proposal writing, communications and presenting. The winning proposals have received grants made possible through funding from the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the Good Gifts Catalogue of the Charities Advisory Trust.

This though is only the start of the work ahead for the partners, as they will now embark on delivering the programmes they have developed, and utilising the training in monitoring and evaluation to document their work to present back to the Project Umubano team at next year’s visit.