Fields of Life

A new school for Ngagara could change the lives of 450 children in Burundi

Burundi is a small landlocked country in central Africa, bounded by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. It supports 8.5 million people on an area less than 40% the size of Ireland. Trevor Stevenson of the Fields of Life Trust which builds highquality schools all over Africa says Burundi is the poorest country he has ever worked in. The statistics back him up – GDP per capita in Burundi is $800 whereas in Ireland it is $45,600.

Trevor's charity has just completed its first project in Burundi – an eight-room school for more than 400 pupils in Ngagara, which cost €70,000 to build but which needed another €11,000 for fitting-out the school – painting it, providing furniture and sourcing school books. This funding was provided by ElectricAid, who saw it as an ideal project for grant assistance, as it specialises in leveraging relatively small grants to complete bigger projects.

Fields of Life are very pleased with the project's outcome. The school's running and salary costs are now absorbed by the government and the school now caters for more than 200 pupils. It will build up its enrolment to its maximum capacity of 450. There is no discrimination on religious or ethnic grounds at the school. This is particularly important in Burundi as it has the same Hutu/Tutsi ethnic divide as neighbouring Rwanda, where an inter-racial genocide took place in 1994. Among the school's pupils are HIV/AIDS orphans and other destitute children.

The President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, was greatly impressed with the quality of the project when he officially opened the school in late September 2007.

Fields of Life has now committed to delivering 20 more such schools in Burundi. ElectricAid will be with them on this fantastic journey.