Give street children in Burundi a future

Burundi needs you today

You may have seen in the news that the political situation in Burundi is particularly volatile at the moment. There are daily protests and barricades on the streets of Bujumbura as protestors try to put pressure on the president not to stand for a third term in office, which they argue is unconstitutional. It is difficult to move about the capital, and hunger and disease are major problems.

During these demonstrations, the police fire tear gas and live bullets to disperse the protesters and sometimes the protesters retaliate by throwing stones or committing other crimes. Most organisations and shops have closed and most workers have been prohibited by demonstrators from going to work.

Near the New Generation Centre, various roadblocks have been placed by the youth from the district. Although many staff have had to leave the country for safety reasons, we are doing our best to look after the children here.

Street Children Program

Although the schools have closed, children supported by New Generation continue to come to our center on a daily basis to take part in activities. Teddy Claude, the project manager of the street children program, is currently living at the New Generation Centre, ensuring the safety of our children.

However, as an organisation that has worked with street children for many years, we know how much this crisis is affecting children in general and street children in particular. When everybody else is running back to their homes for shelter and protection from bullets, street children have no safe place to run to. They get caught up in clashes between the police and the protesters and struggle to find something to eat as most shops are closed and people have no money to give away.

We would like to thank all our partners who continue to support us through this work of providing food and shelter to these children. Let us pray for these little ones not to get involved or harmed during this period. We also ask you to continue supporting them during these hard times.

Promoting active non-violence

Many of the protesters are young people, therefore we have been working with groups such as the Scout movement to exchange ideas on the current situation and to organise  strategies to be used during demonstrations in order to promote active non-violence.

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We wanted to take this time to tell you about how we've used the money from this project, to give the children we work with a safe environment, food, clothing and a great time over Christmas.

Thanks to your kind donations, we were able to give the children we work with the Christmas they deserve. They celebrated with the children from a local church, where they spent time playing games together, performing songs and dances that they had practised, shared a meal together, and then went to the beach. It was a very special day.

We were also able to give them new clothes and shoes which made them feel very smart.

This project is an ongoing fundraising project to ensure that we can provide for these children throughout the year. It is not just Christmas time that they need food and clothes. We want to be able to provide them with long-term accomoodation, allowing them to grow up in a secure and stable environment. We also need to provide them with the equipment needed for school, so they can get the education they are entitled to.

We want these children to reach their full potential, to grow up to be responsible adults, so that they can have a positive influence on the future of Burundi. Will you help us to do this?  Would you consider setting up a monthly donation?

We would love it if you could share this fundraising page with your friends and family, and tell more people about what we want to do here at New Generation.

You can help change the lives of children like Jean.

Jean is five years old and was born in poor suburb in Bujumbura. He started coming to New Generation because his mother was abusing him. When he was four years old, his mother used to send him to fetch water and do many jobs that a four year old should not be responsible for. If he failed or made mistakes, his mother would beat him, even bite him.

One day, we learned that when he had gone back to his mother’s house, she had stabbed him in the head with a knife. He came to New Generation and was taken to hospital where he was able to recover.

One day, when he was out on the streets, Jean saw his mother again. He ran over the road so she wouldn’t see him, but whilst running away, he was hit by an army truck. Miraculously, Dieudonné Nahimana (CEO) was driving behind the truck, so he picked Jean up and took him to the hospital.

Today, Jean is a living testimony. He has been healed physically and is doing much better emotionally. He lives at the New Generation centre and attends the local primary school with his best friend Kevin who is also supported by New Generation.

Thank you again for your support. Don't forget, if you'd like to find out more about New Generation, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

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