Gatare is a town in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

, Central Africa, capital of the homonymous sector in the district of

Nyamagabe Nyamagabe is a district (''akarere'') in Southern Province, Rwanda. Its capital is Gasaka. Geography, flora and fauna The district lies between Butare and Cyangugu in the south-west of Rwanda, and contains much of the former Gikongoro Provin ...

(former Gikongoro). The location is {{Coord, 2, 22, 04.08, S, 29, 22, 52.15, E, region:RW_type:city, display=inline,title. It is located in the southern province of the country, around 2500 m. altitude on the mountains bordering the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

ial forest of Nyungwe. The territory is mostly covered by forest and is intensively cultivated by the population. The climate is equatorial, with heavy and abundant rains from February to April and during the period between September and November, while the period between June and August, the most critical for the population, is characterized by

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

Description

From

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

, the capital of Rwanda, to reach Gatare, it takes about 4 to 6 hours' drive, of which 2 to 4 is on a very difficult road. The population of Gatare is large (about 20,000 inhabitants) and consists mostly of ethnic

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...

, in small part by people of

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic grou ...

ethnicity, and in minority by

pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...

(

Twa Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...

). The social composition is strongly influenced by the dramatic situations due to the civil war of 1994. Part of the population has migrated from other areas, part consists of resettled

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s, coming from different areas. The houses are scattered on the hills or concentrated in villages or towns. The households are on average six people. Authorities are trying to create conditions favoring the establishment of social mechanisms of association.

Culture

Most of the population lives on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. The

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

s most suited to the area are potatoes, peas, cabbage, wheat and tea. The Rwandan government is favoring the growth of tea

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s with the construction of nurseries for small plants and the construction of processing centers of the crop. The land is not fertile and it is always necessary to use additives to fertilize. Very little part of the population benefits of a monthly salary, often wholly inadequate and poverty is widespread.

Infrastructure

Extremely low is the presence of

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

. Just one road links the region with the city of

(former Gikongoro) that is only paved for a stretch (requiring the use of off-road cars) and sometimes prohibitive, especially after the heavy equatorial rains.

Schooling

In the region there is the opportunity to attend pre-school,

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

and

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

s. A particularly significant role is played by the mission of the Daughters of Divine Zeal, who run a nursery school that houses over 400 children and a Health Center (Rugege). The mission is supported by the Italian association of voluntar
Komera Rwanda
helped to perform dental care by another association,

Smile Mission Smile Mission is an Italian Association of volunteers, whose aim is supplying dental and medical care to anyone in need of help. Its denomination in full is ''Associazione Smile Mission Solidarietà Odontoiatrica Internazionale - ONLUS''. Smile Mis ...

. Populated places in Rwanda