Posts Tagged ‘Burundi’
Transforming the Lives of Children Through Early Childhood Development Centers
In communities around the world, parents and caregivers dream about their children’s futures, hoping to see them grow and thrive. The first five years of a child’s life are an essential piece in realizing those dreams, providing critical building blocks for lifelong development.
However, for many parents and caregivers in Burundi, balancing the developmental needs of young children with the financial responsibilities of supporting a family can seem overwhelming. With few childcare options, families are often left with a daily, impossible choice: leave their children home alone or lose the earnings or harvest from that day’s work.
This choice is even more unimaginable for children who have unique developmental needs that, if unmet, can leave them vulnerable to a life-time of challenges — children like Rita.
A Neighbor in Need
When Rita was only two, her mother was violently attacked and killed while carrying her daughter on her back. Rita was injured and left in a coma for three-weeks. When she woke up, she had lost her speech and struggled to socialize with other children, often showing aggressive behavior.
Rita’s aunt took her in, but was overwhelmed by the daily demands of both caring and providing financially for her. She couldn’t leave Rita home alone. She also couldn’t stop working if she wanted to put food on their table.
In her family’s time of need, Rita’s aunt turned to the support of her local community for help. That’s when she connected with one of World Relief’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centers.
Caring for the Child and the Caregivers
In partnership with UNICEF Burundi and local communities, we have opened 11 ECD Centers throughout World Relief Burundi’s Church Empowerment Zones. Each center is run by members of the local community and serves up to 50 children ages two to five. Centers provide trusted care, a nutritious daily meal and plenty of opportunities to socialize and play with other children in a safe environment.
Not only do the centers give parents peace of mind, knowing their children are safe and well cared for while they work, but they are also helping reshape the care of children throughout the community — including back at home.
ECD Center volunteers, many of whom are parents themselves, are trained in positive parenting, child protection, child development and nutrition — lessons they apply and share at the centers, in their neighborhoods and in their own homes.
In a country where currently 56% of children suffer chronic malnutrition, 90% of children ages 1-14 experience physical punishment by caregivers and only 7% of children ages three to five attend early childhood development programs, World Relief Burundi’s ECD Centers are playing a critical role in helping local communities lay a foundation from which children can reach their full potential.
A Life Transformed
For Rita, enrolling in her community’s ECD Center has transformed her life. When she first began attending, she struggled to connect with her classmates. However, through the sensitive social and emotional care she’s received there, Rita has now regained her speech, shares toys and plays well with other children and shows positive behaviors at home and in the community!
While not all children will face the challenges Rita has, the same community-driven programming that helped her can help more families navigate life’s obstacles. By caring well for those experiencing vulnerability, we can uplift whole communities and help more children reach their full potential.
The Path to a Brighter Future
So far, with the support of UNICEF and other donors, World Relief Burundi has reached over 500 children under the age of five through their 11 pilot ECD Centers. The program has garnered praise from parents, community leaders and even primary school teachers who note that children who have attended the centers outshine their peers in their first year of primary school.
Whatsmore, the child development tools developed during the pilot program have been so successful that the government of Burundi has approved them for national scale up. We will be starting seven more ECD Centers in Burundi before the end of the year, allowing even more families to thrive.
At World Relief, we want to see every child have every opportunity to reach their full potential, and we believe local communities are best positioned to help realize that dream. World Relief Burundi’s community-driven ECD Centers are playing an essential role in caring for both children and caregivers as, together, we move towards a brighter future.
Pave the path to lasting change for more families like Rita’s. When you join The Path — World Relief’s community of monthly givers — you partner with parents and churches around the world who are building a brighter future for their children. It takes all of us to pave the path to lasting change, and you have a role to play.
Dana Pair currently serves as Program Officer at World Relief. Prior to joining World Relief, she worked in adolescent girls programming in the Portland, Oregon area. She is passionate about empowering women and girls to bring sustainable change to their communities.
Early Childhood Development Centers Help Care for the Caregivers
The first five years of a child’s life provide critical building blocks for lifelong development. Young children thrive when they receive intentional early learning opportunities and have parents who are equipped to care for them through responsive and playful parenting. However, for many families facing adversity, their child’s development may be hindered when one or more of their core needs are unmet.
At World Relief, we believe that local communities can come together to support caregivers in child rearing so their children can reach their full potential — caregivers like Caritas.
Caritas is an elderly blind woman who lives in Burundi. She had never been married or had biological children of her own, but when her two-year-old nephew was abandoned by his parents, she didn’t hesitate to welcome him into her small home.
However, her blindness made caring for her nephew a challenge. Caritas was always asking for help from her neighbors, and her church took notice.
Caritas lives in one of World Relief Burundi’s Church Empowerment Zones (CEZ). World Relief’s CEZ model of community development is unique and powerful, focusing on existing community assets rather than deficits. Partnering with local churches around the world, we prioritize local partnership and ownership, leadership development and capacity building so that local churches like Caritas’ can be the initiators and drivers of transformation in their own communities.
After being trained by World Relief, Caritas’ church hosted a community mobilization meeting about early childhood development. Church members decided to create a community-based Early Childhood Development (ECD) Center to meet the needs of parents and young children in their community.
Since demand for early childhood programming was high and capacity at the center was limited, church members decided to prioritize the most vulnerable children. Caritas and her nephew were identified as a family with significant need, so her nephew was admitted to the center.
After struggling to care for her nephew on her own, Caritas felt relieved to have a place where her child could benefit from the care and support of good people that she could trust. At the ECD center, he would have the opportunity to learn and grow through play.
“My child is not only protected, but he is more educated and surprises me in his development,” said Caritas. “He is no longer the poor child abandoned by his parents, but he has got a big family.”
Through community-based ECD centers like these, Caritas and hundreds of caregivers are seeing their children grow and flourish as they come together to ensure the most vulnerable children in their communities are given opportunities to develop and grow in safe spaces, full of joy, learning and playing!
Dana Pair currently serves as Program Officer at World Relief. Prior to joining World Relief, she worked in adolescent girls programming in the Portland, Oregon area. She is passionate about empowering women and girls to bring sustainable change to their communities.
Unseen Hope
As we round the corner of 2020 toward the end of the year, we’re bringing you more made-for-change stories from across the World Relief community.
Today, Amberle Brown, World Relief’s MEL Advisor and Disability Inclusion Focal Point at World Relief, shares her story of living with a disability and how God is using her experience to bring disability inclusion training to World Relief’s global programs. Amberle’s story reminds us that change hopes because God is faithful.
A Lost Dream
The warm breeze carried the voices of the practicing church choir through the window of our office. I was sitting in a circle with a dozen of my colleagues in Burundi, discussing our plans to reach people with disabilities with the health, child development and economic development programming in our nearby Church Empowerment Zone. This was the life I had hoped for since I was a child, but I had no idea of the hopelessness I would have to endure to get here.
When I was seven, I told my parents (to their horror) that I wanted to be a martyr when I grew up. Eventually, I toned that down and declared that I wanted to be a missionary when I grew up. From that young age, all the decisions I made were centered on my goal of becoming a missionary: I became a nurse as an avenue to serve in closed countries, I spent summers abroad, I even refused to date boys who didn’t also want to be missionaries.
But a few weeks after I turned 21, I was admitted to a burn ICU for toxic epidermal necrolysis (TENS) – an extremely rare allergic reaction that affects 1 in 2.5 million people – and kills one in three who have it. There is no established treatment for TENS – doctors must sit by as the patient’s body attacks itself, causing skin and organs to lose their linings like a burn.
Over the next month, I lost 95% of my skin and the lining of organs including my lungs and eyes. As my flesh melted away, so did my hopes of being a missionary in a remote part of the world. By God’s grace, I hardly remember any of that month, as a machine forced air into my decaying lungs and artificial bandages served as the barrier between me and the world. When I left the hospital, my eyes were severely scarred, making the world a blur.
And though I could see people like shadows, I was left with a much deeper pain – a pain of not understanding why God would give me a dream and then take away what I felt was my ability to fulfill that dream as I envisioned it.
Pieces of Hope
As I learned how to live with a disability, I also discovered more about the global situation of people with disabilities: Around the world, people with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty; they are more likely to be hungry, have poor health, lack education and be victims of violence; and only 5% of the 1 billion people with disabilities in the world have ever heard the gospel.
And yet, because of physical, communication and attitudinal barriers, people with disabilities are far more likely to be left out of the very efforts intended to foster their thriving.
But in these seemingly hopeless discoveries, God began to restore broken pieces of my hope. For the first time I noticed a Jesus who stopped in his tracks for people with disabilities over and over in the gospels. I learned that my vision loss in fact made it easier for me to rely on God rather than my independence. And I found that my disability itself allowed me to notice and break down barriers that most of us overlook.
My experience with disability propelled me and my team to look more closely at World Relief’s efforts to tackle the world’s biggest problems, to assess and dismantle barriers that might have kept people with disabilities from benefiting from our programs, and to partner with pastors to address harmful beliefs and stigma about disability in the countries where we work.
Bringing Hope to Others
Over the past 18 months, Disability Inclusion (DI) has become integral to World Relief’s mission and strategy. Early emphasis in this work has been focused on understanding the contexts where we work, preparing DI tools and equipping staff to begin DI integration in programs.
In total, we’ve engaged more than 3,400 individuals around DI issues, helping change their perspectives and beliefs about people with disabilities, and guiding them on the journey to understand, identify, serve and treat people with disabilities as men and women made in the image of God.
This work has been piloted across several of our programs in Burundi and Malawi, where 693 local leaders have been reached with DI messaging. Our Parenting for Life couple facilitators have also been taught to better understand the unique needs and constraints that parents of children with disabilities face.
Likewise, 1,966 parents (754 in Burundi and 1,212 in Malawi) have been introduced to a new way of thinking around disabilities, helping them change the way they interact with and treat their children, especially those with disabilities. Many have shifted their mindset as a result of these programs; while they might have previously thought that having a disabled child is a curse from God, they now know to celebrate and support children with differing needs and abilities.
Finally, DI is beginning to inform projects on the ground, the decision-making process, and how we meet the needs of our beneficiaries. In Malawi, for example, a project team focused on improving sanitation conditions within schools worked with children with disabilities in the design of latrines to ensure these facilities would be disability-friendly. These are just a few of the exciting initiatives that are beginning to take shape across our international programming.
Today, I thank God for my disability. I thank God that in my vision loss he has given me a new vision for a world where people with disabilities are embraced by the Church, included in development efforts, and valued by their communities. The winds of hope have come over me afresh. I see redemption coming both in my own life, and in the lives of 1 billion other people with disabilities because real Hope is not based on what we see, but on what we don’t yet see.
“For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:24-25
When you give to World Relief, you support programs and initiatives like our Disability Inclusion work in Malawi and Burundi. Join us in bringing transformation to the world’s most vulnerable.
Amberle Brown is the monitoring, evaluation, and learning advisor for WR’s USAID-funded community-based RMNCH work and World Relief’s Disability Inclusion Point Person. Her personal experience with vision loss sparked her passion for disability inclusion, which has led her to work with World Relief to promote disability inclusion across all program sectors and to co-found The Banquet Network, an organization that equips churches to include people with disabilities. Amberle holds an MSN and MPH from Johns Hopkins University and a BSN from Texas Christian University.
Giving Thanks: From a Mother in Burundi
Earlier this month, we shared the story of Capitoline, a hero who’s saving the lives of many children in her community in Burundi. Now, we get to share the story of a grateful mother who knows firsthand just how important Capitoline’s skills and care are. “Nobody can love and take care of our children the way Capitoline does,” Emmanuella said, as she thought of the time her 17-month-old came down with a high fever and had convulsions in the middle of the night. She and her husband were afraid – these were signs of malaria, a disease that is preventable and treatable, yet often deadly in Burundi.
But Emmanuella knew her neighbor, Capitoline, was a community health worker trained by World Relief. So in the early morning hours, the family ran to Capitoline’s house nearby for help. She was able to immediately give Emmanuella’s child the proper medications, which led to recovery just three days later.
In the past, Emmanuella had taken her children to the hospital when they were sick. But a trip to the local hospital was a significant journey on foot, and they would often have to wait to even be admitted once they arrived. Capitoline’s medical training meant that Emmanuella and her family didn’t have to wait a long time to receive treatment – time that can mean the difference between life and death.
World Relief has trained hundreds of other community health workers like Capitoline, who are always ready and willing to help their neighbors. In addition to diagnosing and treating different diseases, they also educate their neighbors about simple hygiene practices that promote good health for every-day living.
Emmanuella knows that health workers like Capitoline are invaluable: “We thank God that we now have a community health worker in our neighborhood.”
To give thanks and empower more heroes like Capitoline, visit empowerahero.org.
World Relief in Burundi: Maternal & Child Health
In Burundi, approximately 58 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition. Malnutrition is associated with serious medical issues later in life as well as lower education attainment, lower earnings and more prevalent violence. It is a result of poor nutritional practices, limited access to food, minimal dietary diversity and chronic illness. Because 80 percent of Burundians live on less than $1.25 per day and have limited access to the most basic financial services, poverty compounds these vulnerabilities and contributes to a cycle of malnutrition in households.
World Relief is empowering the local church to serve the most vulnerable in Burundi and meet the holistic physical, spiritual and relational needs that exist. World Relief provides long-term training and supervision of staff and government officials, who in turn train Health Workers and mothers to promote better health practices in the community through behavioral transformation. Concurrently, World Relief works with the Ministry of Agriculture to train Community Health Workers on the operation and development of small gardens for women to grow food and improve household nutrition and dietary diversity. World Relief also works in partnership with church network Dutabarane to provide crucial financial instruments to the poor through Village Savings and Loans
Associations.
Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition caused by a deficiency in calories and energy.Félicité Havyarimana, a young woman from the central province of Gitega, had witnessed the effects of the disease in the life of her son, Alfred, ever since he was one year old. She said, “I was sad and desperate, not knowing what to do. In my despair, I turned to traditional healers, convinced that someone had cast a curse on my child.”
When a volunteer from World Relief’s Child Survival Program visited Félicité and examined her son, she explained that Alfred was suffering from malnutrition and that it could be cured. “I didn’t believe her, of course,” said Félicité. “Nevertheless, since nothing had worked so far, I started to follow her advice on health and nutrition, even if I wasn’t really convinced”.
A month later, Alfred began gaining weight and his health began improving. Encouraged, Félicité began participating in World Relief’s cooking workshops, where she learned about the components and preparation of well-balanced meals. “The lessons were really helpful to my children, especially to Alfred who was totally cured and went back to his normal weight,” said Félicité.
Almost three years old, Alfred is now a healthy child who, like many of his peers in the province, has benefited from World Relief’s Maternal & Child Health program. Félicité said that the program opened her eyes to the mistakes she did not know she was making when it came to the nutrition and health of her children. “Now,” she said, “I try as much as possible to keep them on a healthy and well-balanced diet, and I take them to the hospital to see a doctor at the first sign of illness, instead of seeking advice from traditional healers.”
At the root of the program is the long-term goal of Integral transformation of not only behavior, but beliefs, values and attitudes that bring Burundians to a place where they can experience the kind of life Jesus came to bring – life to the full (John 10:10).
Savings For Life: Financial Opportunity for the World’s Most Vulnerable
The world’s poorest have a tremendous capacity and willingness to save and protect assets when financial institutions cannot serve them. They save to meet social obligations, to prepare for emergencies, to start or expand small businesses and to respond to seasonal changes in cash flow. However, the lack of banks in rural areas often leads to high fees and unattainable minimum balance requirements, leaving savings vulnerable to loss and theft.
Since piloting the Savings for Life program in 2008, World Relief has empowered more than 100 thousand participants across six countries through the facilitation of effective and impactful community-based savings and credit groups. After years of testing and expanding, World Relief has developed a program that offers safe and reliable financial services to people who are otherwise excluded from formal banking institutions. Through regular savings and access to appropriately sized loans, group members can meet daily household needs and establish their own income-generating activities.
The Savings for Life program, like other World Relief initiatives, is also one of spiritual transformation. It is integral to the fulfillment of World Relief’s mission to “empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable.” Churches are the point of contact in communities where World Relief is present and pastors work to identify the most vulnerable within those communities. Church volunteers serve as field agents to mobilize and train the savings groups. Finally, World Relief promotes Savings groups because of its commitment to the holistic Gospel of Jesus Christ, a message that leads to transformation in every area of life.
Often, World Relief implements the Savings for Life program alongside other interventions. In Burundi, care group volunteers who bring life-saving health messages to more than 30 thousand mothers every month are invited to participate in Savings for Life groups. In Rwanda, Savings for Life is combined with leadership training so that church and community members can take initiative to meet the needs of vulnerable neighbors with their own resources. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, farmer group members involved in Savings for Life can buy better seeds and fertilizer with their own resources to produce greater yields.
Some of the most vulnerable in Kenya have also benefited from Savings for Life. Compared to other countries in East Africa, Kenya enjoys the largest, most diversified economy (USAID, 2013). Because of its location, the country serves as a place of transport and therefore plays a vital role for much of sub-Saharan Africa. However, decades of unjust governance have stunted economic development. About 60 percent of Kenyans live on US$2 or less per day (USAID, 2013). Kenyans facing poverty often lack access to the most basic financial services. Supplementing the life-impacting work of economic development, Savings for Life groups in Kenya educate members in managing their own savings. As savings accumulate, group members have access to appropriately-sized loans with which they can finance business or personal needs.
In 2011, a women’s group registered with World Relief in Kenya and Fadhili Trust to participate in a village savings and loan association in Ongata Rongai in Kajiado North. Group members save and lend their funds among themselves and also contribute to a social fund to assist with emergencies. When the group began to grow, the women registered with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development to be recognized by other institutions and gain negotiation power for development. Now, they plan to begin using savings to purchase land for various group members. In the last two and a half years, not one of the members has defaulted on a loan or payment. This is the story of just one of several groups operating in seven regions across Kenya.
The groups also provide discipleship for members through regular Bible studies. World Relief believes that God’s restorative plan for mankind includes, among many things, character development with regard to stewardship, personal finance and attitude towards work. The goal is not wealth, but worship – pointing the most vulnerable to a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ and empowering them to live in a way that brings Him glory.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10
A trip in Burundi
by Michael Beeman
I have a card from my grandmother, on the front of which, it is written, “Grandson, life will take you to some faraway places.”, and on the inside, “Know that wherever you go, love goes with you”. It is true. During a trip to a Care Group outside of Gitega, southeast of Bujumbura, I witnessed the power of community and God’s love.
In the Kibuye Health District, World Relief manages a Child Survival Project. Through the Care Group Model, promoters train a group of volunteers on issues pertinent to Child Health, like malaria, diarrhea, and nutrition. These volunteers in turn visit approximately 10 households to share this information. The program is quite effective; malnutrition rates in children under 5 have plummeted to 8% from 36%.
With a few from WR offices, I recently journeyed from Gitega to the Care Group Meeting in neighboring Itaba commune. For one hour, we traversed a severely rutted road. Surrounded by hills of banana plants and coffee fields, we drove through heaps of mud and deep puddles of rain, only to reach narrower roads. Along these roads were men and women coming and going, students at the end of their day, and toddlers who would stop playing and stare at the large, white Land Cruiser slowly making its way over bumps and around bends.
With the help of Lucie, the Care Group supervisor, we eventually made it to the school grounds where the Care Group met. Once there, the welcome was naturally genial; greetings exchanged and a short song sung for an opening.
For this day’s meeting, the topic was nutrition.
They discussed the best practices to nourish children. A couple acted out two skits: one showed the preparation of a meal low in nutritious ingredients, while the second showed the proper preparation of a meal that meets babies’ nutritious needs. The subsequent discussion drew out the importance of a meal rich in micronutrients important for their babies. The participating parents identified the problems in the skit and the solutions, which they in turn would apply themselves and share with their neighbors. The discussion was successful; everyone actively participated and supported their peers in preparing the distribution of this knowledge.
Our departure hardly meant a disconnection. Rather, the exchange strengthened the connection, in the spirit of turikumwe: although separated, we are together. During the ride back home I thought of my Grandmother’s card. Here, in the Itaba commune, the strength of community and the love of God were present. In the beauty of the hills and the energy of the Care Group, the health and strength of families, World Relief, and myself were being restored.
Michael Beeman is a Program Research and Development Intern with World Relief in Burundi.
Photos by Marianne Bach
(1) A few of our World Relief health promoters in Burundi.
(2) Care groups are places of knowledge, learning, and relationship building.
(3) Mothers and children alike benefit through World Relief’s care group model.
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