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No
6 (23 January 2003) Buterere, an
area on the periphery of Bujumbura, is home to the Batwa, one of Burundi’s
ethnic minority groups and one of the three major groups of displaced people in
the Bujumbura district. The area strides the rural-urban divide, has no access
to electricity and is one of the areas covered by ACORD’s programme aimed at
the economic and social rehabilitation of Bujumbura communities affected by war.
The zone’s leader, Mr Bernard Bangirimbereka, also a member and councillor of
the programme’s steering committee, commented on the impact of ACORD’s
intervention on the Batwa and neighbouring communities. “Brickmaking,
rice-growing and petty trade are the most important activities around the
Buterere zone. At the outset, the Batwa worked mainly as labourers for
landowners, but now, with the ACORD programme which provides access to a
start-up capital, the Batwa are becoming autonomous and can carry out their
traditional professions’ he said. ‘The
beneficiaries are starting to assert their identity and all 34 households are
now sending at least 4 of their 5 children to school. They can now eat from the
same plate, something, which was previously unthinkable according to local
practices, and are accepted by all other ethnic groups. Those who were small
traders have become service-providers and models of success in this half-urban,
half-rural area,” he said. “Access to
land is an important development factor amongst the displaced whose farming
vocation has often been affected by the lack of availability and access to land,
which has made them more vulnerable. Thanks to credit facilities provided by the
programme, 16 displaced families have gained access the rice-growing fields in
the Buturere zone. The rice-growers were able to escape practices of usury, of
which they had been victims.” For further
information, contact ACORD Burundi on acord@cbinf.com. |
