Education Burundi Project #25529

Save our School: 230 Burundian Pupils Need a Roof

by Bread and Water for Africa UK

Project Report | Mar 25, 2019
CAPE - giving education and meals for 260 children

By Daphne Davies | Volunteer Journalist

Children eating their school snack

We’re really delighted to tell you that thanks to your generous support not only could the Murakaza School be rebuilt after the storm it has been able to build kindergarten rooms, providing 94 places to give the youngest children in the community a good start in life.

Altogether we have 260 children at the Murakaza School and Kindergarten, so we now have four teachers plus three nursery teaching assistants, and one assistant in first primary. It’s stretching our budget, so we hope you can help us by providing funds to employ a nursing assistant.

A bowl of porridge for each child every day for a year

We’ve now providing breakfast for children at the school, giving each child a daily bowl of fortified of porridge that contains all the vitamins and minerals they urgently need.

This started after our teachers noticed that many of the children were too hangry to concentrate and fell asleep during lessons and didn’t have the energy to play during recess. They realised that many children come from families, which are just too poor to feed their children every day.

We identified that a simple bowl of fortified porridge was easy, cheap and quick to make and gave the children the energy and nutrition they need. We asked for your help, and you responded so we were able to give the school enough money to equip a small food preparation area, eating utensils for the children and porridge and vital supplements. In September 2018 the first batch of porridge was served. It is astonishing to see the difference: the children are healthier, more focused and less absent due to illnesses.

With your help, we can make sure the children at Murakaza keep getting this source of nutrients each day. With just £24 ($32), we can provide a bowl of porridge every single day for one child for a whole year.

Giving parents a livelihood

CAPE is also supporting the children’s parents by running a sewing workshop to teach them to sew, to give them the chance to earn a living by making and repairing clothes for families in their communities. At the moment, parents at the workshop earn money by making school uniforms for Murakaza School. However, we need more sewing machines, as there aren’t enough to go round. They’re expensive to buy (£183/$245 each), so we are asking you to help us by giving some financial support to buy more machines.

As we mentioned the school has been rebuilt and, and thanks to you generous support, can now offer additional kindergarten places. However, CAPE continues to need your support for its school feeding programme, teachers and assistants salaries and sewing machines, so please look at our other CAPE project “A start in life for 230 children in Burundi”.

Getting the porridge ready

CAPE kindergarten children

CAPE school

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Dec 3, 2018
Our new school building is finished, thanks to you

By Daphne Davies | Communications volunteer

The nursery section during drawing class

We made it!

Thanks to the generous support of those of you who responded to our requests for funds to rebuild the Murakaza School after recent flooding, the work is now completed. The refurbished building, plus the new classroom has given the school staff a real boost, as this makes their job so much easier, and means our children will get a good education at Primary level.

At the beginning of the academic year this September, we were overwhelmed by the requests from desperate parents who wanted to enroll their children. We now have a total of 230 students: 160 in primary and 70 in nursery class.

One of them is 4 year old Aimee, who has joined our "little" nursery section (first year). Although she had never hold a pen or pencil before joining the school, she can now draw and recognise shapes and colours. The positive impact of early childhood education in children's development is well-known. Teachers and parents alike notice the striking difference in children after they've spent even just a few months in class. We know that Aimee will benefit from her years at Murakaza for her entire education and even her entire life.

Thanks to the generous support of those who donated to our Save our School project, we were able to prevent Murakaza from crumbling and continue to help children to get an education, but the story isn’t finished yet. Although we are now closing this project, we still need your help to keep the school running. To pay for books, visual aids, benches and teachers' salaries. We can't do any of it without you and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your ongoing support!

Please consider making a donation to our project: A Start in Life for Burundian Children, by clicking here.

And one more favour: please sign up for our newsletter so we can send you occasional updates about Murakaza and our other projects.

Thank you once again and happy holidays!

New toilets

Breakfast time!

The refurbished primary class

The second classroom built for the nursery

Links:

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Jul 10, 2018
Real stories and testimonials

By Sylvia Costantini | CEO

The end of the school year is near, but the the Murakaza school will remain open throughout the summer. This is to avoid leaving the children at home on in the streets. The academic programme is lightened with more extra curricular activities such as sports, games, singing and crafts.

As the Murakaza School is located in a slum on the outskirts of Bujumbura, the intake is from very poor families who cannot afford the public school, which, although technically free, have to pay for uniforms, books and fees for school upkeep. As attendance at Murakaza School is free, this helps parents to see the benefits of schooling, so when their children are ready to integrate into public schools, they are prepared to make the sacrifices to give their children an education. After the summer, a number of students will integrate the national school system.

Thirteen year-old Rodrigue who now attends Kinama secondary school, describes the effect the school had on him “I learned French, Kirundi and maths from scratch, then I could go to public school. I am the first in my class and I have good marks in every subject. The school really helped me and now I know that if I focus and work hard I will have good results. I am very proud to be the first Murakaza child to go to secondary school”.

Eleven year old Patrick, who attends Buyenzi primary school: “I stayed two years at the school and it helps me a lot as we study the same subjects here at public school. We are ten children at home. My father sells wooden cupboards and my mother produces vegetables. We are really poor and we do not eat everyday but our parents insist that we go to school. So all my brothers, sisters and I (except the little ones) go to public school. I want to continue school and later I would like to be a doctor to help my community.”

Girls are encouraged to attend the school, which helps to reverse the trend where only boys are considered worth educating.

Fifteen year old Alice Irankunda says: I studied two years at the school, I then went to public school but had to quit and came back here to study one more year. I learned French, Kirundi and counting. This helped me when I had to go back to public school. I try to have good marks but it is not always easy. I am good at geography and French but I have problems with mathematics. Later, I would like to be a jurist because I love changing things.”

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