I arrived in Kigali yesterday for a three-week visit in Rwanda. There are a number of items on the itinerary on which I will be reporting further in due course. The first part of the visit I will be travelling to a number of our projects with SURF photographer and videographer, Andrew Sutton. This is an opportunity to highlight our work more visually than my blog updates ever can.

We will be focusing as well on setting up the new Comic Relief Survivors Integration Project (SIP), including a visit to AVEGA Western Region in Cyangugu. Due to the distance, it is only my second visit to their office – but some films from my earlier visit can be viewed online here.

A critical aspect of the new project, and a condition of the grant, is the development of an advocacy strategy, on which I will be fortunate to be joined by Redress, the international human rights organisation which like SURF is registered in the UK and active in Rwanda.

In addition we will be sharing the results of the systems review undertaken by Health Poverty Action of IBUKA, AVEGA, AERG and GAERG, and developing a plan to take that work forward. Complementing this will be a further review of our own work, and a meeting of our Forum of Partners, to ensure that we are developing as an organisation aligned with the needs and priorities of the partners. This will be an opportunity as well to elicit their input on our strategic plan, as part of SURF’s mid-term review of our work.

As importantly, the visit will be an opportunity to ensure that I am better informed to more effectively advocate and fundraise for the partners that SURF represents. To ensure that you continue to be updated, then please do ensure that you are signed up to receive our monthly newsletter, and subscribed to this blog.

I look forward to reporting further!