21 November 2008
When 15-year-old Maurice lost his father in 1999, the prospects looked bleak. Coming from a very poor family, even having enough food to survive on seemed an impossibility.
Sure enough, hunger soon struck and, out of desperation, Maurice's mother stole some bananas from the field in which she worked. Caught, she was fined more than she could pay and as a consequence became indebted to the field's owner. Not long afterwards she died, with the money owed still unpaid.
A mixed inheritance
Maurice and his siblings' inheritance from their mother was small, little more than the house they lived in - and the debt she could never afford to settle. Seeing an easy opportunity to recover the debt, the landowner wasted no time in confiscating the house. Maurice and his young brothers were forced on to the street.
Alerted to the boys' plight, Noel, a member of a local child protection unit funded by DFID, contacted the landowner to try to resolve the dispute as amicably as possible. But the landowner would not budge. So Noel revealed the case to the media. What had been a local shame swiftly turned into an outrage on a much wider scale.
For the landowner, the embarrassment was too great and the house was eventually returned. Now Noel and his colleagues are helping the brothers to make some much-needed home improvements - part of a DFID-backed programme working across the country to give at-need children a decent start in life.
A decent start
Aline Harerimana, a 13-year-old student from Mungwa Primary School in Gitega province, received a brand new uniform through the programme, which is known as Nzokira.
"I went to school before Nzokira," she says, "but other children were always laughing at me because I didn't have nice clothes."
"I didn’t play at all at school. But I finally received a new uniform and now have friends. I am no longer discriminated against." Aline is one of many children to benefit in this way - over 26,000 uniforms and other schooling materials have been provided through Nzokira for the 2009 academic year. In addition it has placed orphans with foster families - almost 400 so far.
The programme also assists children with healthcare costs, offers vocational training and helps them to save money and access credit - keeping them, like Maurice and Aline, productive, self-reliant and out of poverty.
Facts and stats
- The Nzokira programme is a three-year programme which began in July 2006 and works in eight of Burundi’s 17 provinces.
- The programme was set up by Catholic Relief Services, CARE International and over ten local partner organizations.
- DFID is providing £5,150,000 of funding to Nzokira over three years.
