Restoration Burundi
For a Peaceful and Prosperous family
Since 2015, we have introduced a pre-cooperative movement in the community on behalf of development cells. Poverty is more marked in rural areas than in urban areas. So cooperatives will help people to get out of dependency, promote co-responsibility of members and integral and sustainable development. They will also contribute to peace building in Burundi.
Today our country is in extreme poverty and dependence on foreign aid, so it is important to create a system that will lead the population, especially the young and vulnerable groups of the poor, to economic autonomy. The co-responsibility of members will furthermore strengthen reconciliation, social cohesion and mutual aid within the communities.
*Development cells: In order to promote the cooperative movement, we organized workshops for leaders of development cells on entrepreneurship, transformational leadership and moral values that enable cooperative development through a training module called ‘Giriteka n'itekane’ (have dignity and peace).
*Savings and loan groups, health insurance, etc.) Members meet once a week to exchange ideas and give their contributions for social assistance and strengthen their social cohesion. This is the beginning of health insurance. These activities will soon be structured as mutual health insurance.
Members of these development cells, after having saved, can cooperate by investing in agro-pastoral or commercial activities as income-generating activities.
Based on the awareness sessions on integral development and the fight against poverty, the members grouped in cells meet once a week and exchange ideas based on the word of God and experiences to get out of poverty.
During the same sessions the members give financial contributions of which 70% are allotted for income-generating activities and 30% for social assistance among themselves.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROGRAM
Development cell
Development cells are community peace clubs that Restoration Burundi has created in the rpovinces of Bujumbura, Kirundo and Cibitoke to reinforce the culture of peace. In Bujumbura, the cells were formed at Mubone in the North Outskirts of Bujumbura, in Buterere suburb, near the main dump. This suburb houses poor communities some living by scavenging on the dump to earn what to eat or some items like scrapped wood coal to sell. Many households are instable and some end up in divorce leaving children in streets. Some can try a small commerce where a mother of 5 children can use a capital of 2$.
Here, Restobu identifies such women and trains them on biblical values so as to build strong families. Moreover, they are trained on small business and are given a small capital each for their business. Women are targeted the most because they often stay with children once abandoned by their husbands and struggle to raise them.
In Kirundo and Cibitoke province, Restobu targets the poorest church communities and repatriated families. These churches are especially Anglican, Foursquare, Catholic, Pentecost. Methodist in the communes of Bugabira, Kigoma zone in the province of Kirundo and Rugombo commune in the province of Cibitoke. Members are helped to rent properties and given small animals to breed. Within groups they have also set up a saving-loan system where they can save money and be given small loans for small businesses. When they harvest, a part is mostly spent to feed their families as some of them especially in Rugombo commune do not possess their own properties, whereas another part is spent to help in renting further properties.
In Busoni commune, there are 4 cells with 60 families. They combine both returnee families and those who hadn't fled. They were created as part of strengthening social cohesion between the returnee and host families.
Members of the cells are also trained on how to write projets and competitive projets are funded. Actually, Restobu is funding 9 projects from the cells. Most of them are farming.