Read about Concern's on-going work in Burundi
Friday, 7 April 2006
Read about Concern's on-going work in Burundi
Concern began working in Burundi in 1994 as a result of the country’s civil war. While the country has now entered into a fragile peace, militia groups are still active and over 400,000 Burundians still live in refugee camps in neighbouring Tanzania and Rwanda. Meanwhile over 116,000 people are internally displaced within Burundi, still unable to return to their homes because of ongoing insecurity and their own precarious financial situation.
Much of Concern’s work in Burundi is presently focused on providing health care and nutrition to conflict affected mothers and children. In Bujumbura Rural province Concern have three Supplementary Feeding Centres (SFC’s), providing nutritionally enhanced food to malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers.
Approximately 300 people are currently involved with the programme, one of whom is 28 year old mother of four, Janet who came to the Concern SFC with her malnourished daughter, Evelyn, 4 years old (pictured above). The family’s income and food source have been decimated by a nationwide outbreak of ‘Mosaique’, a virus which attacks Manioc, one of the staple crops in Burundi. When Evelyn developed a stomach illness, Janet had no funds for health care and resorted to bringing her daughter to the Concern SFC in late 2005 after observing her become more and more thin, ‘I was so worried about Evelyn. She was light as a leaf when I carried her to the SFP’ she said.
Now, with the help of de-worming treatment, micronutrient supplementation, and weekly rations that are prepared in the form of porridge at home, Evelyn has reached her target weight within the space of only a few months. As Janet observed Evelyn playing she commented; ‘Now I see her out playing with leaves so I can definitely say that she weighs much more than a leaf now. I certainly notice it when I lift her into bed at night!’ Although sourcing food independently remains a real concern for Janet, she believes that the health practices disseminated by the Concern staff will mean that she can minimise the health risks for her family.
The real challenge remains for Concern to move from emergency response work into long term development work, mirroring the steps being taken at a national level from war into peace.
The country recently held its first elections since 1994. One of the first measures taken by the government was to make primary education free to all Burundian children. However this has led to an inundation of the country’s already threadbare schools system. Concern has decided to focus much of its effort in the coming years on improving access to and quality of education in Burundi. As well as building classrooms and latrines for under-resourced schools, Concern are providing “Catch-Up Classes” to students who’s schooling has been interrupted by the country’s civil war.
Maurice is a Concern catch-up class teacher in Cibitoke province. He feels that one of his greatest challenges is convincing the children of the long term benefits of education. This can prove especially difficult with children who have experienced the trauma of war and are now facing up to the day to day realities of poverty. “It is difficult to convince children about the importance of education when there are few role models and there is such little opportunity” says Maurice.
Nazeer, one of Maurice’s pupils, dropped out of school at the start of the year to go gold digging in order to earn money for his family. Maurice spoke to Nazeer and convinced him to come back to school: “We used the example of local businessmen. They know how to manage their money, they have learnt how to save and invest.” Nazeer has obviously taken stock of Maurice’s advice and is applying himself like never before. His test average has shot up to 82% and he is now eighth in his class. Most catch-up class students graduate at the top of the class when they enter the formal sector, due to the quality and intensity of mentoring they receive. As Maurice explains, “We have to show the kids that what you learn in school lasts longer than a day”.
