A travelogue
by Frank Mutschler & World vision e.V.
August 2010: Timo Mosca, Managing Director of Mosca GmbH, approached me with the idea of supporting a social, international aid project. We have been a major regional sponsor for decades. However, becoming internationally active was also a new challenge for us.
After intensive research, I decided to get in touch with the aid organization World Vision. Right from the start, I had the feeling that I was in good hands. World Vision is a Christian aid organization with a focus on sustainable development cooperation, humanitarian aid and development policy advocacy work. Its work focuses on supporting children, families and their environment in the fight against poverty and injustice.
After interesting discussions with Eva Martin, project officer at World Vision, we decided to support an aid project in Burundi.
1 The initial situation in Burundi
Burundi is a small and densely populated landlocked country in East Africa. The country is one of the poorest in the world. Burundi's history is characterized by conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. A civil war raged from 1994 onwards, but despite a peace agreement in 2000, violence continued to flare up again and again. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives - simply ignored and forgotten by the global public. The country has stabilized since 2009, but the traces of the war are still visible - even in the education system! Many school buildings and important infrastructure were destroyed and have still not been rebuilt. Qualified teachers fled at the time and have never returned. Primary education is free of charge, but the distances to school are often too long, classes are usually far too large and the range of lessons is poor. Although 99% of children across the country are enrolled in school, only 74% attend elementary school regularly, of which only around 66% reach the fifth grade. Even if the children go to school, this does not mean that they will actually be able to read and write well later on. As local conditions in Burundi are only improving very slowly due to many factors, external support is needed.
2. aims of the project
A new school was to be built for around 400 children. In 2011, the children were still being taught in the dilapidated school building or were not being taught at all. The new school was to be built with disabled access, large windows and ventilation grilles.
Not only the children should benefit from the new building. The rooms and meeting places will also be used for village events, tutoring and adult education.
A very important area of the goals in Burundi is education, as it enables the next generation in particular to take steps out of poverty, thereby laying the foundations for sustainable improvements in this country.
After more than three years, it was done. The school buildings and the library can now be used to their full extent. By supporting this international aid project, Mosca GmbH wants to demonstrate its sense of sustainability. The idea was not to make a one-off donation, but to support an entire project through continuous and regular support. With success.
3. the journey
Day 1
To see this sustainability on the ground, I set off for Burundi at 4.30 a.m. on the morning of 13.03.2015! The time had finally come.
The next evening I would be in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. What could I expect there? Will I be able to understand and cope with everything? What is the situation like on the ground? Far too much time passed between World Vision's request to travel to Burundi with them and the actual departure. In the age of the Internet, we read too many reports and take the travel warnings from the Foreign Office more and more seriously every day.
I wanted to see as many of World Vision's projects "live" as possible, but of course I also wanted to get to know Burundi as a country and its people. What do you do in Burundi, what can you experience, what can you learn? First of all, what you shouldn't expect to find are well-developed tourist infrastructures and the usual amenities of well-organized trips to Africa, such as in Kenya, Namibia or South Africa. What you will find, however, is a country with deep scars and challenges, but also with very charming and dedicated people and some truly breathtaking experiences and panoramas.
In addition to the impressive landscape, there are of course also the downsides and challenges of a poor country. And prospects. How do you earn your money? The answer is: you live from your education. It is the basis for development and sustainability. How does World Vision invest donations? It invests in information and education. Preschool projects (reading camps), schools, health education, agricultural projects, microcredits for young women. All these projects were on our itinerary.
Day 2
When I arrived in Bujumbura, I immediately noticed the clean streets. I had already prepared myself for the worst - in terms of the people and the area. We were welcomed by two German employees from World Vision, who are currently working in Burundi. After an interesting and varied day in the capital, we set off the next morning in 3 jeeps to Cankuzo, the easternmost province of Burundi. This meant driving across the entire country. At the end of the day and throughout the entire journey, I realized why we were travelling in four-wheel-drive jeeps. Outside the larger towns, the roads were in very poor condition. The journey went over hills and hills, mostly at an altitude of between 1,500 and 1,800 meters. In daylight, the journey is considered relatively safe, but you should reach your accommodation before nightfall. Of course, our drivers were also aware of this and so the ride sometimes had something of a Paris-Dakar rally about it. But this was nothing compared to the driving style of the omnipresent cyclists. For the young men, the bicycle is the main means of local transportation. Vast quantities of wood, bananas, vegetables, baskets and all kinds of goods are piled up on the pannier racks. Not content to ride with this extra ballast, they race down the steep serpentines of the mountains from their fields on their way to the countless markets. Speeds of 50-60 kilometers per hour were not the exception. But the uphill sections were even more exciting. The bike transporters hitched themselves to trucks and cars on their empty rides, which is of course convenient, especially on the uphill sections, and let themselves be pulled along at crazy speeds with a "fresh air supply at the exhaust".
We reached the district of Cankuzo in the evening. It is located in the province of the same name in the eastern lowlands of Burundi. It is one of the poorest regions in the country. After a very dusty drive, we were all looking forward to our after-work beer. However, as this was not available in our motel, we made our way to the next motel on foot after checking into our rooms (8 euros). And we did so in complete darkness. Electricity and running water are very rare in the region. The flashlight, a bucket of rainwater or a bottle of water were really appreciated during those days.
We were greeted with the word "Muzungu!" by many curious children. A word that was called out to us again and again over the next few days. It means "white man" in Kirundi. Letizia, the good "soul" of World Vision in Cankuzo, explained to us that we should respond with a friendly "Amahoro" (hello).
As a white person, you stand out in Burundi, at least in the countryside, because there are not so many white people here, away from the capital Bujumbura. A little anecdote in passing: one evening, a young man approached us and asked if we were from England. We replied in the negative, to which he replied that someone from England had been here years ago.
Day 3
The next day, a packed schedule of visits awaited us. At 7.30 a.m. we made our way to the World Vision office in Cankuzo. From there we went straight to the regional minister of the province, who gave us a warm welcome. After we had finished the official part, we were finally able to set off for the aid projects with a heavily armed escort in our luggage. However, as we thought at the beginning, the escort was not there to protect us, but the minister's "bodyguards". After about 45 kilometers over hill and dale through the middle of the wasteland, we arrived at our school project in Gatete. Over 400 children were already waiting for us and greeted us with African dancing and singing. We were greeted by a wave of warmth, which was to be repeated in all subsequent projects. For a long time beforehand, I had been wondering what to expect and how to deal with it. When I arrived, I simply let my feelings guide me and tried to integrate myself into the group of children. The children wanted to be close to us and only if you allowed this could you feel that "special feeling". Something that is difficult to put into words, you just have to experience it. Many of the children had never even seen a white person.
And what we found on site completely exceeded our expectations. The cleanliness and tidiness of the school grounds could hardly be surpassed. Even Eva and Oli, World Vision's Africa-experienced employees, had never before encountered such a showcase project on the African continent.
In September 2012, World Vision inaugurated the first buildings of the elementary school in Gatete. After a year of construction, the elementary school in Gatete was completed and replaced the old and collapsing facility, which only had room for 117 pupils. Now 400 children, most of whom walk up to 5 kilometers to school, can be taught in a child-friendly and safe building. As the six bright and friendly classrooms are barrier-free, they are also easily accessible for children with disabilities. The new rooms offer more space for desks, so that from now on two instead of four children will share a desk.
The teachers' room and a small library are housed in an additional building. Outside the classrooms, World Vision has also installed large blackboards so that all villagers can learn together or, for example, pupils can receive extra tuition and adults can receive further training. The construction of new teacher accommodation was completed in 2013.
A very important aspect was the construction of two new toilet facilities and the installation of hand washing facilities in front of each classroom to reduce the spread of disease. The pupils and teachers are delighted that they can now wash their hands with clean water and no longer have to rely on the surrounding bushes and shrubs to go to the toilet - a real milestone on the way to improving hygiene conditions at the school!
To round off an extremely eventful day, we visited the secondary school in Cankuzo. Hundreds of young people gave us an overwhelming welcome. A multi-generational library was built on the school grounds with the help of the donations.
The library set up in the project area in previous years was stocked with new reading material in 2014. In a careful analysis, project staff worked with the teachers and representatives of the education authority to determine the reading needs of the children, young people and adults, purchased missing books and delivered them to the library. Many books had to be imported from abroad as they are not available on the local market. There is only one bookshop in the whole country!!!!! and no functioning book and publishing industry. The library in Cankuzo is now used by around 3,000 people every month.
Day three came to an end and we arrived back at our accommodation shortly after dark. Tired, but overwhelmed by the impressions, we ended the day with our beloved "after-work beer".
Day 4
Fourth day, 05.00 as every morning, we were woken by the prayers of the muezin. That meant breakfast in 2 hours. Okay, the morning wash was usually very easy and quick for us as, as almost always, there was no running water. At 7.30 a.m. we started our "jam-packed" day again. Our first project was a visit to a small village in the countryside, where we visited the godchild of my fellow travelers Judy Bailey Depuhl and Patrick Depuhl. Judy Bailey Depuhl is a singer, composer and musician of Christian pop music and has been an ambassador for World Vision for many years.
Lasting improvements in the lives of needy children are only possible if their environment is changed. The help of a World Vision sponsorship is therefore not limited to the sponsored child - the child's family and environment are also involved.
At 9.30 a.m., we continued on to World Vision's FARN project in Muterero. The FARN project combats malnutrition in children. To counteract this, the mothers are trained in nutrition, cultivation and cooking courses. The women learn very practically how to prepare nutritious and balanced meals using locally available food. An adequate and balanced diet is the basis for the healthy development of children. In Cankuzo, however, many children are malnourished. They often do not have enough to eat, and even if the quantity is sufficient, they still often lack important vitamins and nutrients. The consequences are underweight or even stunted growth, with long-term consequences for the children's health and performance.
A very special moment was when I met my little namesake "Frank". Judy Bailly and I sat down on the straw mats between all the mothers and children to find out more about their worries and fears. My little friend Frank came up to me and sat on my lap in front of the big, gray man without any fear of contact. He laughed and played with me - exactly the moment when I knew that our donations had come to the right place and the right partner.
After two hours, it was time to say goodbye again. It was with a heavy heart that we continued on our visit.
Forget what you imagine pineapples to be. A visit to a pineapple plantation was on the agenda as we continued our journey through the province. We were greeted by Charles, a man who could have starred in any movie about Africa with his charisma. He heads a farmers' group founded by World Vision. Pineapples are grown here on several hectares of land. The project is going well and the products are being sold. Within a year, the area under cultivation has been increased from 2 to 7 hectares. We were lucky enough to get pineapples freshly cut from the ground. A taste that cannot be compared with anything we can buy here. World Vision has contributed to the fact that 7,654 small farmers are already using resource-conserving methods in agriculture through training. As a result, around a third of small farmers have already increased their yields by at least 20%.
And so the last day of our trip drew to a close. A trip with so many impressions that I will probably need weeks to sort and categorize them all. An experience that I would not have wanted to miss in my life and I hope to be able to return to this corner of the world one day to assess the development of the country and the people for myself.
4. what happens next?
Over the next three years, Mosca GmbH will work with World Vision to support many more educational projects in Cankuzo. Further elementary school are to be built or existing ones renovated and expanded. There are also plans to invest even more in the quality of education. Children's reading skills are seen as an indicator of change, as it has been scientifically proven that this is a key skill for children's further development. Teachers are trained for this. Children and young people are supported in learning reading, writing and arithmetic in an improved school and home environment. It is important that everyone else in the family and neighborhood helps too - and we give them the support they need!
Local reading materials are also produced. Supported by local World Vision employees and with the help of special software, the people in Cankuzo can produce locally adapted reading, learning and teaching materials. In this way, they become authors and publishers themselves! This not only provides valuable new reading material that enriches the thinned-out market. Involving adults and children in book production also stimulates their creativity and personal responsibility and promotes reading skills and concentration.