The new statutes are written and everyone including the Ministry of Justice (MINIJUS) agreed on the name change of CAURWA into COPORWA. CAURWA what stands for ‘Communauté des Autochtones Rwandais’ is a name that is no longer accepted by the Ministry of Justice since the word ‘Autochtones’ refers to the Indigenous of Rwanda, the Batwa. Especially after the redrafting of the constitution in 2003 it is illegal to work on any ethnicity in specific in Rwanda. You can not even mention anymore there are Tutsi, Hutu and Batwa in Rwanda. This has to be put all in the context of what happened in 1994 when almost 800.000 people were slaughtered for being of a different ethnicity. The policy now is to deny and de-emphasise the ‘ethnicities’ of Rwanda and call them all ‘Rwandese’. It all seems very well-funded and reasonable, but in reality this policy has a negative effect on the Indigenous of Rwanda. These people who have been neglected already for centuries and have been at the bottom of the society deserve special attention and some affirmative action. The organisation of CAURWA is purely focusing on the rights of these indigenous and is aiming to improve their livelihood situation. CAURWA’s permit is ending the end of this month and no extension is granted unless we change the name and remove all references in the statutes to indigenous and Batwa. This struggle for saving the references to the indigenous and Batwa is already going on for the last couple of years and the government of Rwanda turned out to be the strongest side. This leaves CAURWA with no other option then to change the name and remove the reference to indigenous and Batwa. The new name of the organisation is going to be COPORWA (Communauté des Potiers Rwandais). This means ‘Organisation of Rwandese Potters’. The Batwa are famous for their potting skills and most Batwa practice these skills as a way of alternative income generation. Referring to potters however is not the same as referring to Indigenous or Batwa. From being a potter no special indigenous rights can be derived and also the term potters is imperfect since not all Batwa are potters. Being potters is not the original culture of the Batwa and it not completely resembles who the Batwa are. However without any extension of the legal permit to work as an NGO it’s likely that CAURWA won’t be able to work at all on their target group. By changing its name it bends for the policy of the government of Rwanda, but will be still able to focus on the Batwa although they won’t be called like that anymore. The alternative income generating activities will focus on improving the potting skills of the Batwa and CAURWA even considers introducing machinery potting skills to be able to compete with the import of plastic and aluminium pots from the east. CAURWA regrets of losing this struggle, but is still full of energy to continue the work they started and improve the livelihood of Rwanda’s most vulnerable people ‘the potters’.