In this picture blog, Irfan Shakil and Professor Tanjil Sowgat from the SHLC team in Bangladesh reflect on a recent research trip to Rwanda. Their images provide a glimpse into what daily life is like in Rwanda’s neighbourhoods and illustrate how different, but sometimes similar, the neighbourhoods are to their home towns.
Image credits: Irfan Shakil, Khulna University, Bangladesh.
Vulnerability in informal settlements: The temporary tin shades, congested living and settlement on difficult hilly terrain. I’ve seen similar vulnerabilities in my own home town in Bangladesh.
Slums in Kigali: We’ve never seen permanent plinth and brick walls and even metered electric connection in slums Bangladesh. Are these signs of better tenure security in comparison to Bangladesh?
Segregation in Kigali: The poor are living in the wetlands while elites live in protected land. It reminds me of the slums in the elite Gulshan area, a planned residential area of Bangladesh.
Planned residential area in Kigali: Beautifully planned neighbourhoods in Kigali are very different from its poor neighbourhood. Everything is so perfect, but we wondered why they did not have footpaths there! Are pedestrians marginalised just like Bangladesh or does Rwanda want to promote a card dependent neighbourhood?
Cleanliness of Kigali: The clean and green roads were amazing and were very different from Bangladeshi cities.
Car free road in Kigali: A great initiative by the Kigali city authority to have car free road, which is unthinkable in the case of Bangladesh.
Skyline of Kigali: Low rise buildings and the green all around the hilly city. This view proudly tells me that the city is yet to become congested, and it still admires green.
Peri-urban Kigali: The peri-urban Kigali attracts middle and higher middle-income people who moved from the main city to get access to affordable housing. However, I was surprised to see the poor road conditions. People built houses even though they had limited access to paved roads!
Community participatory activities and meeting: People initiate community development works with conducting time to time meeting to plan their activities.
Planned Neighbourhood in Huye: Interesting use of road paving in Kigali. The planned town of Huye gave me a pleasant surprise. These places are much different from our apartment dominated planned areas in Bangladesh. I was amazed to see how the country recovered the shocks of genocide and did so much to bring positive changes.