RWANDA is one of the 20 poorest countries on Earth. Fourteen years ago, genocide wiped out a significant percentage of the population.

The majority of people in the country live on subsistence agriculture for under 25 UK pence a day.

Imagine trying to rebuild a country almost from scratch after the genocide. That is what Rwanda is doing and doing remarkably well. Economic growth has been averaging almost double digits in the last decade.

Everyone is now a Rwandan - the use of ethnic labels like Hutu and Tutsi is now a taboo. The UK is the largest foreign aid donor to Rwanda, giving about £45 million a year to this small country the size of Wales with a population of just under 10 million. Against this backdrop, shadow international development minister Andrew Mitchell MP is leading a group of over 100 Conservative volunteers to the country for two weeks to work in five areas: education, construction of a community centre, health, justice and private sector.

The education team is teaching English, as this former Belgian colony now wants to join the Commmonwealth. The whole trip has been privately funded by the volunteers.

The health team is headed by Worcester GP Cllr David Tibbutt and is bringing training and medical equipment into remote rural communities.

The justice team is helping deal with the backlog of trials from the genocide.

The community centre is in a village where 80 per cent of the households are headed by orphans.

I am part of the private sector team, which is looking to help Rwanda's fledgling banking system, stock market and successful microfinance banks.

Today we had our first day of introductory meetings, with the president's senior economic adviser, with the Development Bank of Rwanda and with the Governor of the Central Bank.

From complete bankruptcy 14 years ago, the banking sector now consists of eight fledgling commercial banks.

Tomorrow I visit the second largest micro-finance bank, which is making small loans and taking small deposits from farmers and small entrepreneurs for whom this is a transforming opportunity. Last year the Conservative Party donated knitting machines to a village where the small cooperative of knitters now earn an annual income of $1700, up from $50 a year ago.

From a standing start, microfinance now touches 600,000 people who were previously unbanked, and although the initial money was donated, now these banks are sustaining themselves.