The Ruyigi Action Aid team and I headed over the Governor's office first thing in the morning. We queued outside the Governor's office and watched various groups of people go in and out. When he was ready Cryiaque came and got us and invited us in.
I'm sure you know by now Burundi's main language is Kirundi however French is the main for those fortunate enough to have an education and Cyriaque is certainly one of them. On his wall is a plaque from the Burundi President for his services to the community. No surprises here, another outstanding Burudian, anyway.. the Governor… is a French speaker so as he spoke to me and told me all about the challenges that his country have faced during and after the war, Josias translated for me.
Cyriaque told me about how there was a vision by 2025 to establish quality education and food security and that now the war was over and the country was at peace it was a time for everyone work and work as hard as they can. He told me how he appreciated the work that Action Aid does and believes himself that to begin to help the country you need to start at the family level which again falls in line with Action Aid's Human Rights Based Approach, which the more I understand, the more I appreciate its simple brilliance, but I'll come back to that.
I told the Governor that when I went to visit Donatien in his village, I was asked many times if ActionAid could provide a water supply as they do not have one and have to travel in some cases miles to get it. One thing I haven't explained is the number of people that this will help, this won't just be a few hundred this will provide water to all the surrounding villages. This will help thousands.
I asked him if we started a micro project to get a water supply put into his village how he and the government could support it. He told me that any labour required to lay the pipe would be free and any construction supplies required, cement etc would not be taxed. Cyriaque endorsed our micro project and gave it his full support. Excellent. I think we have a project!
Action Aid are putting together the information we need and we will go from there. This includes maps of current water suppliers and the target area to get the water to. ActionAid's initial estimate was around £20,000 to put the pipe in but that was without the Governor's contributions, so we will have to work out how much it is going to cost and get raising some money!
Although Cyriaque's words were interpreted for me I can see that he believed passionately about everything he was saying and quite frankly I do too, that's why I'm here. Cyriaque thanked me personally for my support and asked me to spread the word to other sponsors to come over and visit their sponsored children which I will wholeheartedly and endorse 100%.
If you are a sponsor and reading this from one Burundi's supporting countries like the UK, Italy, USA or Brazil then ask you to kindly consider two things please; Firstly, please write to your ActionAid child. It means so much to them and also please send photo's, this is very important, the children and their families love this, it gives them some connection to the outside world and show's that someone else cares about their situation. Secondly, get over here to Burundi. It is one of the most beautiful countries with a wonderful people. The people's ability to smile through adversity is like I have never seen before and the truly amazing thing is they want to help themselves so much, they just need a helping hand.
If you are interested in going to visit your ActionAid child in Burundi feel free to contact the ActionAid team or myself and I will give whatever advice I can.
Kenyerazigume Associations - Farmers Association Visit
After the meeting with the Governor we headed over to Bweru which is about 30km east of Ruyigi. We met with the head of the farmers network Pierre who gave us a briefing on what had been going on with the farmer's association. This is another association I didn't understand fully until I saw it and had it explained to me first hand.
Pierre, the head of the Farmers Network.
To summarise this, the associations main purpose is a granary. The problem that the granary resolves is that business men were buying all the seeds from the market and farmers weren't keeping any of the harvest back for sowing. When it came round to sowing seeds the price of them were high as they were more scarce and the businessmen could charge what they wished.
ActionAid has trained up team of local farmers to create an association and given them support by giving them land for farming and funding for the granary. Farmers are then informed, normally via the church, when to take their seeds to the granary to be sold. The granary gets first priority on all the seeds, any leftover can be sold to businessmen etc. When it comes round to sowing time again. The farmers buy back the seeds from the granary at a very slightly higher cost which covers the granaries cost of the treatment that have been applied to the seeds for storage.
Bweru - Kirambi School Visit - ActionAid Information gathering
We arrived at the school to shouts I was getting quite use to now. I'm getting a T-Shirt for my next visit with 'Umuzungu' (White man) on it. The way the kids shout it is hilarious, they just run off shouting 'moooooo-zunnnnnn-guuuuuuu!!!!'
The purpose of this visit was for Josias to gather feedback from some newly sponsored children of their thoughts on their sponsorship so far. I stayed out of the way for that and decided to have a bit of a game with the 30 or 40 kids that had surrounded me. I started taking their pictures on my digital camera but then showing a picture of themselves on the screen on the back of the camera. Well this caused them to fall about laughing, they loved this.
Bweru - Information gathering
When Josias had finished with his work we headed off to stop in a lady to gather some information on how a women's work is so much harder than a man's. I haven't gone into this yet but the Burundi women are incredible. Traditionally, I hate to say it, but the men let the women do the hard work. This is changing with education but has no way been eliminated yet.
The lady we stopped into see was a 54 year old mother of four called Adrienne, she told us her routine. She gets up at 5:00am to light a fire and cook the children and husband breakfast. She then goes to the fields for cultivation ten at 1:00pm return to the house to cook lunch then heads back out to collect firewood for the next day plus more time in the fields. The husband gets up last goes to the field then doesn't work in the afternoon. He goes for a walk. As I said though this is been reduced with education but these women are amazing, they more often than not will do this with a baby strapped to their backs.
Adrienne and her family in Bweru
Just when we were about to leave Josias wanted to gather some information on the challenges presented to carrying water back to the home. This is where we met little one of Adrienne's children Alan.
Alan
This little fella was lovely, brandishing a cheeky Burundian smile. I'm not sure whether I'm meant to say this but don't feel sorry for him. He was a happy little lad who a has a wonderful mum and lived near a water supply which thousands and thousands don't. All you see along the roads and tracks are people carrying water, people of all ages from not long after they can walk to the elderly...and they have to carry for miles at a time.
Josias spoke to the girls also and they showed us how they carried jerican's of water on their heads.
Climate affected crop
We then headed back to the Farmers Association to meet a lady who had a crop suffer because of drought. She showed us the plot of land where her beans had not grown more than a foot high and dug some soil to show how dry it was.
Bakery
On the way back to Ruyigi we stopped off at a small street bakery located beside a government youth centre which had been funded by ActionAid. We got to taste the bread which was just perfect and are sold for 5p each.
I'll post pictures on Sunday...
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