Today was the final day of the Conservative Party's summertime social action project in Rwanda, Project Umubano. The climax to our two weeks in the central African country was the opening of the community and sports centre in Kinyinya - which we had worked so hard to create - by President Kagame.

Taking part in Project Umubano has been a fantastic experience and it was a great privilege to meet President Kagame during the opening ceremony. The basic shell of the Kinyinya community centre building was built by local labourers paid out of funds we raised prior to our arrival - thereby providing local employment - whilst we volunteers completed the building and transformed the grounds by working alongside the villagers of Kinyinya who are all orphans or widows - survivors of the 1994 genocide.

Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills and the vast majority of the population are unemployed, living off subsistence farming. The photographs below show the progress we made from a baron piece of hillside when we arrived to a complete community & sports centre. Just out of shot is a football pitch/volleyball court - flat surfaces for sports pitches are few and far between in Rwanda so ours had to be carved out of the hillside. To the left is the outdoor ampi-theatre, to the right is an area housing a climbing frame and acrobatic bars and below is the community centre and landscaped garden.

This has been the second time that Shadow Secretary of State for International Development and MP for Sutton Coldfield, Andrew Mitchell, has led Project Umubano, which means friendship & co-operation in the local language. More than 100 Conservative MPs, candidates, staffers and activists worked alongside Rwandans to help tackle poverty and promote development with each of the volunteers covering their own flight & accommodation costs. In addition to the construction project volunteers focused on health, education, justice and the private sector (including capital markets) with the overall aim being to make a modest contribution towards improving quality of life and strengthening civic society.

This project demonstrates that international development and the need for freer and fairer trade in the developing world are core principles in today's modern, compassionate Conservative Party.

Andrew Mitchell described the project as a chance to "roll up our sleeves" and make a real difference.

"Global poverty is the greatest moral challenge of our time, and we are looking forward to making a personal contribution, however small, to improving lives in one of the poorest countries in the world."

• Click here for Tobias Ellwood MP's article for ConservativeHome, 'Why we went to Rwanda'
• Click here for Chris Kelly's associated report on his visit to a UNHCR refugee camp in Rwanda
• Click here for 'Andrew Mitchell launches Rwanda campaign' in the Birmingham Post
• Click here to visit the website of the Survivors' Fund, partner charity of Project Umubano
• Click here for the Conservative Party's Project Umubano photo gallery

9th August 2008