Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has something interesting for Rwanda Prime Minister Paul Kagame in his first-ever visit to the land-locked east African country. He will be offering 200 cows, which are though sourced locally as those are adapted to the natural surroundings of the region.
In his visit Modi will be visiting to Rweru model village in eastern province of Rwanda and gift the cows the PM’s flagship “Girinka” programme, which was launched in 2006 and focusing on facilitating “one cow for one poor family.”
As per report from government sources the programme as so far benefitted about 3.5 lakh families. Kagame himself is overseeing the programme and the poorest families are eligible to get cows by the government. More to this, the first female calf born is thereafter gifted to neighbor of the family. This is said to promote brotherhood and solidarity in the community.
Ministry of External Affairs’ Secretary (Economic Relations) T S Tirumurti called the programme as an “important element” of Kagame’s programme.
In simple words the word Girinka is translated as “have a cow.” Such tradition had been in practice in Rwanda for centuries. Cows were gifted either as a sign of respect or as marriage dowry.
In his visit the Indian PM will be visiting Kigali Genocide Memorial too and learned to be expressing India’s gratitude to the Rwandan people during 1994 genocide in which no Indian was killed or injured.
