Burundi

Histoires vécues

An oasis for Burundi's troubled children

A pair of newborn twin boys lie sleeping in a cot covered with a white mosquito net at Maison Shalom. They sleep as babies do, deeply, despite the fact that their mother died when they were born. It is another day at Maison Shalom with children playing and laughing outside on the grass.

Like all newborn twins in Burundi, the two boys are called Bukuru and Butoyi, the Oldest and the Youngest. In May 2002, when their mother was in her eighth month of pregnancy, she and her husband and four young children left their home in the village of Muhwazi to flee heavy fighting. They joined a group of 32,000 people who were forcibly regrouped by the army at Nyabitsinda commune. For over five weeks they were cut off from humanitarian aid. The family slept outside in the swamp trying to protect the children from disease, malaria and roaming criminals.

The twins were born one evening in the swamp. Shortly after, with no other assistance apart from her terrified children and her husband, their 29-year-old mother bled to death. Their father walked the whole night to reach the town of Ruyigi, with the twins in his arms, in a desperate effort to save their life and to ask somebody to come and assist his wife. The twins were saved by staff at the centre run by local NGO, Maison Shalom. Sadly, help was too slow in coming to save the twins' mother.

The other four children in the family are back in their house in Muhwazi with their father and grandmother. They try to make a living out of their little plot of land, despite the fact that it had been looted by armed groups in their absence. The family is too afraid of attacks and robberies to sleep in the house and is forced to sleep outside. For the children it seems better to sleep outdoors and risk malaria than to sleep in the house to become victims of armed bandits.

Maison Shalom, supported by UNICEF, is temporarily taking care of Bukuru and Butoyi until their father can ensure their survival and send his six children to school. For the time being, the twins' proud father walks six hours on difficult roads to visit them every month. UNICEF, through Maison Shalom, provides the family with basic supplies such as blankets and food.

Many of the children in this region have been victims of violence, displacement, abuse and neglect. At Maison Shalom they have been given the chance to recreate their lives again after witnessing horrific events such as the killing of their families in attacks, or death from disease.

At Maison Shalom, resident social workers or 'mammies', as the children call them, care for the boys. In the last three months, Maison Shalom took care of more than 30 newborn babies who lost their mothers at birth inside or just outside displacement camps. The older children at Maison Shalom, many of whom lost both of their parents to HIV/AIDS or through the nine-year-long conflict, love the small boys as if they were their own brothers, hugging them or talking to them.

The older children go to school while UNICEF supplies them with clothes, recreational kits, food and other basic assistance. UNICEF, through Maison Shalom, is assisting children in the provinces worst affected by the conflict: Cankuzo, Ruyigi and Rutana.

Maison Shalom also manages UNICEF's decentralized stock in Ruyigi as part of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Contingency Plan. The stock enabled UNICEF to provide plastic sheeting, blankets and high-energy biscuits (BP5) to people regrouped in Nyabitsinda while the camp was still inaccessible to humanitarian assistance.

Maison Shalom consists of a main building, three houses for the youngest children and more than 70 houses built to accommodate small families headed by orphans who look after younger siblings. These children participate in income-generating activities, such as looking after cattle or agriculture, as well as regular school activities.

Meanwhile, watching the children dance, sing, laugh, learn and play together gives hope that their future will be brighter than their past and that peace will find its way to Burundi through this new generation whose childhood is being recast at Maison Shalom.