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A TINY village in Rwanda has been renamed Dumbarton in tribute to churchgoers who raised thousands of pounds for their community.

The Rock Community Church in the Scots town have handed over almost £26,000 to the 150-strong Jari community.

Church spokesman Billy McClung said: “Local government officials in Rwanda said that because of our financial and emotional commitment to Jari, they were happy for us to rename this area how we liked.

“I made an executive decision that this should be Dumbarton Village. The people of the Jari community were delighted as it’s evidence of the links between us and them.”

The church have forged strong links with the people of Jari, who are still trying to rebuild their lives after the genocide of 1994, when more than half a million Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutus following long-standing ethnic rivalry in the east African country.

The cash raised by the church has been used to improve infrastructure in the village.

Mud huts are being replaced with more sophisticated homes for Tutsi widows and children.

The Rock church, in conjunction with Kilsyth charity Comfort Rwanda, have raised enough money to build three houses equipped with guttering, toilets and solar panels. Work has begun on a fourth house and the money raised in Scotland has helped kick-start a mini local economy in Dumbarton, Rwanda, with locals selling electricity generated by solar panels to power neighbours’ mobile phones.

Scots-funded bee hives are also enabling them to harvest honey, with other money raised going to buy cows and sewing machines.

Billy said: “Our church gives to a number of foreign organisations.

“Parishioners raise the money here and we take part in bag-packing in supermarkets. A lot of the stuff we do is income-generating activity – a hand up rather than just a hand-out.”