On the road
Stefano and Emanuela’s journey to monitor the AMU and Casobu projects in Burundi has begun. The first step to reach the protagonists of the project “Water Source of Life in Bururi” involves a passage on somewhat impervious roads. In the video below, Emanuela makes us understand how difficult the connections are, even on board off-road vehicles designed specifically for these journeys. And it is precisely on these roads that the communities of the Rukanda hill move every day to reach other cities. And it is on these roads made impassable by the rains that the population has given one of the most important contributions to the project: the construction materials of the aqueduct were unloaded from the trucks that transported them and all together, the inhabitants of the hill, loaded them on their shoulders or heads to make them reach higher up, where their use was necessary.
Arrived, first meeting in Rukanda
The first stop of Stefano (President of AMU) and Emanuela (Project Manager in Africa for AMU)’s trip to Burundi involved the community of the Rukanda hill. Here, in 2020, the project “Water source of life and development in Bururi” ended and today, speaking with community representatives and some families, one can perceive that access to drinking water near homes has truly changed the lives of many, as well as increased a sense of community born during the construction of the infrastructure and which continues today with the management and maintenance of the common good. Jean Bosco, a teacher at Ecofo Rukanda, stressed that: “We are very grateful for the project for access to drinking water for our community. At school, children now have drinking water at their fingertips and can be more relaxed during lessons.” The project has also stimulated the reciprocity of each member, not only with the commitment in the start-up and construction phase, but today with the awareness and responsibility of being the driving force of their own development, as underlined by Stefano: “ Access to drinking water, savings and credit groups, ecological toilets are the result of the ability to live together and the commitment of each person to the development of your community.”
Visit to community microcredit groups in Bururi
Community microcredit groups are born from the savings that individual members pool. In turn, each can benefit from a loan from the fund to start, sustain or expand their own income-generating activity. In the case of the project “Water source of life and development in Bururi”, microcredit groups are born because part of the income produced will help families and the community to manage the aqueduct as a common good. In addition to this fund, the group in the video has also created a “Social Fund” to which other savings can be contributed and which can be accessed in the event of emergencies or special needs: illness that prevents work; death of a family member, expenses for medicines or funerals.
Meeting with the authorities involved in the project “Water source of life and development in Ruyigi”
“It is our job to involve and sensitize the community to participate in the project activities, after all, development belongs to them” – Valéry Nkunzimana, Chief of Staff of the Governor of Ruyigi Province. After Bururi, visit to the activities of the project “Water, source of life and development in Ruyigi” in Burundi. Upon arrival, we were welcomed in the province by the local authorities who appreciated the activities of the project that had seen them as protagonists from the beginning. The involvement of the local authorities, and in particular of the Chief of Staff of the Governor, was of fundamental importance for the realization of the project and for the involvement of the communities. In fact, initially the local communities were a little reluctant to participate in the construction work with their free labor because they were accustomed – unfortunately by bad practices used by other NGOs – to receive money. Building relationships and nurturing reciprocity, the basis of AMU and Casobu’s interventions, means making each member of the community a protagonist and partner in the development process. For this reason, we have always asked them to actively contribute to the construction of the aqueduct, an infrastructure that will remain, in fact, their property. The intervention of the chief of staff in this regard was fundamental: he called all the municipal administrators asking them to personally commit to raising awareness in the communities… And so it was. And the administrator of Ruygi really took him at his word and went to dig the channels for the pipes with the community. It was an important example that started a spirit of collaboration and active participation by the people: that’s how we managed to complete the work!
How life changes with drinking water
Today, during our field visits in Burundi, we met Cécile, a protagonist of the AMU and Casobu project “Water source of life and development in Bururi”. She told us how, thanks to access to drinking water, the lives of children and families have improved, especially from a hygiene and health point of view.
Drinking water and the inclusion of the Batwa
One of the important aspects of the project “Water source of life and development in Ruyigi” is the involvement of the Batwa (pygmy) community of Rwamvura (Ruyigi province), the area of intervention of the project. Here the community is made up of about 76 families who live in conditions of extreme poverty, isolation and with enormous difficulties of social inclusion . Education and health are precarious: 80% of school-age children do not go to school and the population does not have access to drinking water. Their villages, distinct from the others, are still made up of straw huts. The particularity of their culture and the difficulty of integration have often determined the success or failure of the development actions. Thanks to the constant work in the territory, the Batwa community has also been involved, becoming the protagonist of reciprocal actions, such as active participation in the excavation and construction works, necessary to carry out the project. For a week now, the Batwa community and the approximately 700 children of the Nyarunazi school have been able to use drinking water for the first time and this is the welcome they gave us upon our arrival.
The journey ends with new goals already in mind!
Emanuela and Stefano are back from their project monitoring trips in Burundi and together with their experiences, they bring with them the strength and commitment to accompany the local community in other development projects. These are Emanuela’s words upon her return:
“Ten intense days, very intense, but too short. The return always brings with it the thought of how much more could and should be done.
The mission was full of encounters and warmth: the people of the communities welcomed us, thanked us, offered us food, testimonies, smiles and thanked us again countless times. As if having water was not their right. As if they felt privileged and grateful for this “gift” that is not at all obvious. This is what strikes me the most every time. After so many years in Africa I still can’t get used to the fact that in Burundi the world works “backwards”: here we turn on the shower, as a natural and obvious gesture and they cry with joy when they see clean water flowing from a fountain near their house.
In this as in other monitoring trips, meeting the authorities and local partners was also important, because they are the ones who continue with the management and maintenance of the infrastructures when AMU and CASOBU complete their “part” of accompaniment. With them we have built a dialogue over the years that today allows us a continuous comparison and a sincere collaboration.
This visit – after a few years of absence due to the pandemic – was a truly essential step also to strengthen the relationship that has tied us to Casobu for years, to meet again, realign ourselves and set new common goals. Starting from the needs of the communities, who once again confided their problems to us and put their dreams in our hands.”
The project is implemented with the support of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia – regional law 19/2000 – € 29,574