Banro Foundation and the Luhwindja
Community Celebrate Handover of New Primary School
Toronto, Canada - December 6, 2010 - Banro
Corporation ("Banro" or the
"Company") (NYSE AMEX - "BAA"; TSX - "BAA")
is pleased to report that the Banro Foundation,
a registered charity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the
"DRC"), has officially handed over to the community of Luhwindja in the South Kivu province of the DRC the
new Chiburhi Primary School. The project was
financed and built by the Banro Foundation
using local contractors and labour. Luhwindja is located near Banro's
Twangiza gold exploration and development
project.
The handover of the project took place in an official ceremony in Luhwindja on Monday November 29, 2010 and was
attended by almost 1,000 local villagers and school children. Among the
local leaders in attendance were the provincial minister of education, a
senior representative of the ministry of mines, and the local tribal and
administrative leadership. A delegation of Banro
employees was led by Company Vice President of Corporate Development,
Martin Jones.
With 12 classrooms serving almost 600 students, a conference room and
library, the Chiburhi primary school is the
largest of the three schools built to date by the Banro
Foundation. With its completion, the Banro
Foundation has since 2009 completed the construction of two new high
schools and a primary school, a potable water delivery system serving
18,000 people in four villages, a new health care centre, the
construction or re-construction of over 100 kilometres
of roads and bridges and two shipments of medical equipment from Canada
to several regional hospitals and clinics.
The Banro Foundation is currently completing
construction of a fourth school, near its Namoya
project, and a women's training and resource
centre near its Lugushwa project. Among the
Foundation's plans for 2011 are the construction of a regional
marketplace at Luhwindja, the construction of
three new primary schools, and the rehabilitation of a primary school and
a secondary school. The Banro Foundation is
also working with the Twangiza mine development
team at Banro Corporation and with local NGOs
to promote skills development and alternative livelihood strategies for
artisanal miners and enhanced agricultural skills for local farmers.
The Banro Foundation is a registered charity
based in Bukavu, DRC and funded by the Company
with a mandate to improve the lives of thousands of people living in
South Kivu and Maniema provinces through strategic investments in
education, health and infrastructure development and to provide
humanitarian assistance as needed. Among the principles guiding the work
of the Banro Foundation is a focus on needs
identified by local community leaders, with priority given to projects
that benefit communities as a whole. Where possible, the Foundation
employs local labour in its initiatives.
Photographs of the Ceremony will be available soon on the Banro website at www.banro.com.
More information about the Banro Foundation,
including a comprehensive list of projects to date, as well as the
Company's other Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, can be
viewed at www.banro.com/s/CorporateResponsibility.asp or in
French at www.banro..com/s/FR-Corporate-Responsibility.asp.
Banro is a Canadian-based gold exploration and
development company focused on the development of four major,
wholly-owned gold projects, each with mining licenses, along the 210 kilometre-long Twangiza-Namoya
gold belt in the South Kivu and Maniema
provinces of the DRC. Led by a proven management team with extensive gold
and African experience, the Company has commenced construction of
"Phase I" of its flagship Twangiza
project. Banro's strategy is to unlock
shareholder value by increasing and developing its significant gold
assets in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.
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For further information, please visit our website at www.banro.com, or
contact: Simon Village, Chairman, United Kingdom, Tel: +44 1959 569 237;
Arnold T. Kondrat, Executive Vice-President,
Toronto, Ontario, or Martin Jones, Vice-President, Corporate Development,
Toronto, Ontario, Tel: (416) 366-2221 or 1-800-714-7938.
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