Not going to school is Jean’s greatest fear
Jean*, age 8, does not want to miss out on school like some children in his neighbourhood.
Every day on his way to school, he sees children his age, sometimes younger, forced to work in unsafe conditions to contribute to their family’s income.
Jean and his brothers live with their mother, Alima, in a slum on the outskirts of Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital. Near his home is a sprawling garbage dump, where most locals spend the day rummaging through rubbish, looking for recyclable material to sell.
Hungry, barefoot children brave the smoke from the burning plastics and scavenge for food. Some children from the community have run away from home in search of a better life on the streets of Bujumbura.
Jean feels lucky. Even when Alima couldn’t pay his school expenses, she didn’t ask him to work. Instead, he stayed home with his three brothers.
Alima tilled people’s farms for a living after her husband died, and the family often survived on only one meal a day.
“I was always hungry,” says Jean. “We never had enough to eat but I went to school. Sometimes the teacher sent me home when I didn’t have books.
“I know the value of education,” says Alima. “I hope to keep my children in school because it gives them a chance to escape poverty.”
The impact of poverty on education for children in Burundi
Burundi is one of the five poorest countries in the world according to the Human Development Index (UNDP 2020).
More than two-thirds of Burundian children live in poverty.
The rate of education for children in Burundi is low. Out of 5.1 million school-age children and adolescents, about 1.9 million are out of school. Although schooling in Burundi is free, school uniforms and supplies are not.
Support for Jean and his brothers to return to school
Alima has always worked hard to give her children the best she can. But the family was facing a great deal of hardship.
In 2018, Jean and his family found support through the Family Strengthening Programme run by SOS Children’s Villages.
The programme is there to support families so that children can grow up healthy, safe and loved.
With this help, Jean and his brothers were able to continue go to school. They received uniforms, stationery, school bags and other essentials that made it possible for them to continue their education.
Life also began to improve at home. Alima used a small grant from the programme to start a business, buying innerwear from across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and selling it in Bujumbura. The income meant her children could eat well, stay healthy and go to school.
”With the money I made, I was able to feed my children nutritious meals three times a day, and they carried snacks to school. We were very happy and felt alive,” says Alima.
She was planning to move her children to a better neighbourhood. But when COVID-19 struck in March 2020, the border closed to curb the spread of the virus, and the family began to struggle again.
COVID-19 and the struggle to stay in school
“My small trade was flourishing,” Alima says, “but the closure of the Burundian-Congolese border seriously hurt our lives. I could no longer get supplies from DRC because I couldn’t afford to pay for the costly COVID tests required to cross the border.”
With the collapse of his mother’s business, Jean began to see the change on his plate.
“I didn’t understand what was going on in our family,” he says. “At one point, I asked mum why we no longer ate fresh fish and why she forced us to eat food we did not like. I also asked her why my brothers and I no longer had tea in the morning before going to school.”
Jean also worried that the virus would prevent him from going to school, but Alima reassured him: “I know he is afraid of ending up in the dumpsite. That is always on his mind. So I told him not to be afraid. Even when I did not have money, he would continue his studies because [the SOS Children’s Villages] Family Strengthening Programme was supporting us.”
A dream for the future: education for more children in Burundi
For Jean, school is a place of refuge where he can dream about his own life and future.
“I will make a lot of money when I become a pilot one day,” he says, “so I can help children from poor families. I feel bad for the children in my neighbourhood, who can’t go to school, because they can’t achieve their dreams.”
With the Family Strengthening Programme still beside them, Alima has started selling groceries, while planning to return to her old business once she’s raised enough money. For Jean and his brothers, the chance to keep learning gives them hope for a brighter future and one free from poverty.
*Names changed for privacy reasons.