SOS Children in Burundi

Our charity began working in Burundi in 1976. Since then, years of armed conflict have left many children without family and psychologically scarred. We work to give children in Burundi who need help a loving family and home in one of our SOS Children’s Villages.

With SOS Children, you can help orphaned and abandoned children in Burundi by sponsoring a child:

Getting back on track after years of violence

Around 84% of people in Burundi are poor, making it one of Africa’s poorest nations. Years of civil war have undoubtedly contributed, as hundreds of thousands of people died and over a million left internally displaced. In rural areas, people are facing particular hardship. Droughts and other disasters lead to frequent food shortages. Around 50% of Burundi’s population cannot read and write, owing to the country’s poor education system. Around 180,000 people live with HIV/AIDS. Deaths from diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever and hepatitis A are on the rise. Burundi has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, as the average Burundian woman gives birth to six children.

Children in Burundi

• In Burundi, around 610,000 children are orphans. Alongside those orphaned by AIDS, more have been orphaned because of the economic situation, as families struggle to get by.
  
• Street children roam the streets of Burundi with many resorting to begging to survive. About a quarter of children are involved in labour activities.
  
• During the civil war, thousands of children were recruited as child soldiers by armed rebels. Young girls were also abducted into slavery. Psychological scars still stay with many who survived.
  
• 35% of Burundian children are undernourished and around 90,000 children live with HIV/AIDS, as the disease is passed on by mothers during pregnancy. 

Our charity work in Burundi

Gitega

Bujumbura

Muyinga

Rutana

Cibitoke

Opened in 2009, SOS Children's Village Cibitoke provides a home for up to 120 children in twelve family houses. An SOS  Nursery and SOS School educate about 300 children and an SOS Medical Centre can provide medical care to up to 12,000 people per year.

Aids Orphans in Burundi

Life in SOS Children's Villages Burundi: First steps at school

Jacques was admitted at SOS Children's Village Bujumbura on 1 September 2009, after the death of his mother while giving birth to his younger sister who was also admitted to the village. The two children were welcomed in a loving family where they found a committed SOS mother as well as warm-hearted brothers and sisters. On 7 September when schools reopened in Burundi, Jacques, who was already three years and a half old, made his first steps at the nursery. Our colleague in Burundi followed him and forwarded us echoes of his first school day:

Jacques arrived at school accompanied by his SOS mother. He did not feel greatly surprised. He was calm, and observed the environment for a long time before he began to play with the other children.

The most difficult moment arose when all the pupils have been asked to enter the classrooms. Jacques began to cry because he did not want to enter the class without his mother. He was afraid that his mother would leave him at school and he wanted to go back home with her. This small moment of separation was not easy for his mother too, as the child kept asking for her. On her way back home, Jacques' mother felt a loss after being separated from her son. But, she was obliged to leave her son at school as he was beginning a new era of his life.

Jacques said he now loves going to school because there he finds children of his age. He goes to school to play with his friends and classmates. He is happy to go to school every day.

*name has been changed to protect privacy

Local Contact