As I have been active in Rwandan civil society organizations for a long time, I know that the law allows organizations to protect person´s rights by giving proposals on laws and national policies.
If civil society organizations do not help policy makers to make the desired changes, we will not be able to easily improve our living conditions. I give the example of APROJUMAP, which has a program to improve the foodquality for the poorest families.
They have been able to negotiate that poorer rice farmers can consume their own rice production, themselves.They were obliged to sell the unhusked rice to the processing units for marketing.
I understood that we obtain the best results by using the communication channels. We can organize public meetings, petitions, public but peaceful demonstrations. At the same time we can invite traditional media like radio, television, printed media. We can also take advantage of visits by parliamentarians or other political authorities.
"Unity is strength, if you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far, go together".
"Unity is strength", "if you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far, go together".
Thus, I learned that to be efficien in advocacy, the best thing is for civil society organizations to come together to have a constructive voice.
That's how we improve certain policies and adapt laws.
Because our goal is to promote the best living conditions of Rwandans.
Translation: Romaric Mvondo