Belgian francophone community increases aid

The Belgian francophone community announced last week in Brussels that it intended to step up its cooperation with Central Africa. Five projects are to be launched, as follows: · to post one voluntary worker to each of the four Belgian schools respectively in Bujumbura, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Kigali, primarily to enhance the accessibility of these schools and to encourage the return of investors and their children. · to meet nearly the total cost of the new phase of UNICEF’s “Batissons la paix” project in Burundi, which is to provide for the training of teachers for primary schools. · to provide support for the UNESCO education for peace and the conflict resolution chairs at the National University of Burundi and the sanitary education, preventive health and social communication chairs at the University of Lubumbashi. · to establish a documentation centre for students and researchers in Kinshasa. · to finance the House of Women (Maison des Femmes) in Burundi. The total cost of the five projects will be US $445,000. This will be in addition to the francophone community’s regular budget for Central Africa, which has been increased by 10 percent to US $1.4 million for the year 2000.