Greetings to HUMAN IN LOVE family! I’m Seong Hae-shin, the head of the Rwanda and Burundi Branch. Today, I’d like to share news about the Burundi Branch with you.
Burundi’s budget and infrastructure are so insufficient that the country is designated as the world’s least developed country by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). Furthermore, the country has faced political turmoil since early last year, which resulted in various incidents up until now. As of today, around 280,000 Burundi people can’t go back to their hometowns from the refugee camps they’re staying in other countries.
Despite the fear of death, Burundi people are going to work and living their daily lives because they have to live anyway.
The HUMAN IN LOVE Burundi Branch has been paying close attention to our target region Bubanza with the support of our local staff Stanley. The HUMAN IN LOVE Burundi Branch is not only working on our scholarship projects but also working hard to figure out what difficulties are facing children and teenagers in Bubanza.
We’ve discussed with public educational officials in Bubanza and finally were able to visit three primary schools this month.
[ With the head of Rundo Village who helped a lot in building an elementary school. ]
Plenty of students, but no classroom.
First, I visited RUTENDEYE Primary School.
[ RUTENDEYE Primary School rented a church building to give lectures. ]
This is a classroom where first and second graders study. Since there is no school building, RUTENDEYE Primary School has rented a church building to give lectures. However, since the building is not large enough to facilitate students and teachers, students in other grades have to walk around two hours to attend another elementary school. Moreover, since the school is located near valley, they can’t go to school in rainy season.
[ First and second graders of RUTENDEYE Primary School are sharing a classroom and lecture. ]
This is why parents in RUTENDEYE have been collecting money to build an elementary school. After years of collection, they managed to buy a land as large as five classrooms, but they have to wait until they get enough budgets to build classrooms. However, they don’t know when that day will come.
[ chool site purchased with parents’ pocket money. ]
The second primary school I visited was RUNDO Primary School. Even though 144 students were registered, there was not even a building and any educational infrastructure. I was wondering what was behind and I found out that parents in the town strongly urged for the registration of students anyway since there was no school in their remote town.
[ Parents in Rundo village are paving the school site that they bought with their pocket money. ]
Parents had been taking turns to lend their house. After saving pocket money for five years, they have managed to buy a school site. They’ve even paved the school site every weekend so that construction can start any time. However, there hasn’t been any progress since then because they couldn’t buy any materials for construction.
The first real classroom they’ve seen.
[ Inside and outside of GiKO Primary School. ]
The third school that I visited was GiKO Primary School. Parents here also collected money for years, purchased a school site and built two classrooms. The roof of the school was nicely built thanks to the donation of a nearby steel company. That was the first real classroom ever that they’ve seen.
[ These classrooms were so dusty that only a single blow raised a cloud of dust. ]
Parents contributed to the building of the school without any others’ help, but children have to study in dusty classrooms that haven’t been completely built due to lack of fund.
I found they couldn’t give lectures as much as they wanted since all of the students were sharing just two classrooms even though there are supposed to be six classrooms.
[ Inside and outside of GiKO Primary School Teachers’ Room ]
With mothers, we will make sure the dream for education will be realized.
Like Rwanda, Burundi provides primary and secondary education for free. Developing countries are in desperate need of free education because many people in those countries are living on less than a dollar a day. However, many problems are rising because free education has been provided without proper preparation.
Running a school requires infrastructures like a building, desks, chairs, teachers’ room and restrooms. However, in many cases, school registration is just completed even though such infrastructures are not in place. This is why there are so many schools that don’t even have a school building.
The HUMAN IN LOVE Brundi Branch has discussed with local educational officials and decided to launch a small project to build two classrooms for three months from July.
[ Bright students of GiKO Primary School ]
Please keep supporting these children and parents who have great passion for learning. Thanks!
From Seong Hae-shin.
There are many children living under such a harsh environment. However, these children and their parents are not giving up on their passion for learning. Especially parents desperately hope their children can go to school and become a decent person because they know what it is like to live without proper education.
Our first project will start at Rundo Primary School that does not have a classroom. It might not be enough to accommodate the children, but HUMAN IN LOVE and the parents promised to get one at a time together.
