Youth crime preventers urged to enhance partnership

Over 360 female Youth Volunteers in Community Policing (RYVCP) from the Southern Province have been urged to enhance their efforts in rallying against crimes in their communities.

The call was made by Huye District Police Commander (DPC), Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Francis Muheto during a meeting with members of RYVCP on February 15.

The crime preventers are all beneficiaries of World Relief Services.

CSP Muheto urged them to focus mainly on the fight against drug abuse, gender based violence and human traffic when they are educating their peers.

“Normally traffickers tend to target mostly young girls by manipulating them to believe that they are offering them good jobs or good education abroad. When a little girl is taken in such a manner, she’s forced into hard labor and prostitution; they are deprived of all their rights and their identity,” said CSP Muheto as he urged the RYVCP members to raise the awareness against the vice.

The DPC added that; “In your anti-crime campaigns, always encourage young girls not succumb to such lies instead urge them to report to security and local authorities any time they encounter such a person. You should as well educate your peers about effects of drug abuse to their health and to the communities they live in so that we eliminate these crimes in our societies.”

He however hailed them for their contribution in crime prevention and urged them to enhance their outreach by being more vigilant so as to achieve their ultimate goal of having a crime-free Rwanda.

“You can only achieve your goal of ensuring public safety through community policing; you have to always remind the public that ensuring security begins with an individual,” said CSP Muheto.

“Rwanda National Police is committed to facilitating you with all possible means and cooperating with you to ensure that we collectively keep our country safer,” he said.

The coordinator of female youth volunteers in Huye, Denise Umwari, thanked the police for the knowledge they acquired and urged her fellows to ensure they collectively enhance crime prevention in their neighborhoods.

Rwanda National Police continuously reaches out to the youth and has trained members of the RYVCP on crime prevention.

The organization that is made up of high school students, university undergraduates, teachers and many  young professionals  countrywide, support communities by carrying out crime prevention awareness programmes in schools and communities against drug abuse, corruption ‘ gender and domestic violence, among others.

Community-oriented policing is a strategy adopted by RNP that focuses on building ties and working closely with members of the communities to overcome crime in their localities