THE Conservative parliamentary candidate for Clwyd South, John Bell, will be one of 100 Tory volunteers in Rwanda for the start of Project Umubano 2008.

They will continue the work started by the Conservative Party last summer.

The volunteers will focus on five areas: health, education, justice, the private sector and a community centre construction project.

They include doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, teachers, lawyers, parliamentary researchers and local councillors.

The parliamentary party is represented by 10 MPs joining the project, alongside 10 prospective parliamentary candidates, all of whom will cover the costs of their flights and accommodation.

Mr Bell said: “I’m excited by this challenge and delighted to get the opportunity to make a modest contribution to a country which represents both the best and worst of Africa, the worst because of the terrible events of 14 years ago when nearly a million people were massacred in a carefully organised genocide and the best because this is a country determined to break out from the shadow of its recent past, and which has made great progress since 1994.

“It also represents an opportunity to educate and inform myself about the challenges of international development. Whatever the problems we have here at home, we cannot turn our back on the needs of one of the poorest parts of our increasingly inter-connected world.

“I will be working with a group of volunteers led by Tobias Ellwood MP who will build and decorate a community centre in Kinyinya, a community where the majority of households are headed by orphans, their parents having been massacred. Part of the centre will be a multipurpose sports area for football, badminton and volleyball.”

He added: “This is an ongoing development project that I’m proud to be part of and I would hope, for example, we could establish links between local schools here and in Rwanda.”