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Pygmy children playing in Muyinga, Burundi
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Pygmies in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa have long been the poorest and the most ostracized of all people groups in this already impoverished region. While others support themselves through agriculture and raising livestock, the Pygmies have no land and have historically been a nomadic people surviving as hunters and gatherers. Today, because the forests have been ravaged through years of war, Pygmy families are forced to beg for food. Concerned with basic survival, the education of children holds little importance to parents.
Education
FAMA is changing this cycle of poverty by supporting the education of Pygmy children and by providing material support to the families as well. In the academic year 2007-2008, FAMA launched an initiative to support Pygmy children in school in the province of Muyinga, Burundi. Since then, 125 children, whose families are completely illiterate, are attending school for the first time. FAMA provides the children with school supplies, clothes and shoes. FAMA also follows up regularly with the school administration to ensure that the children enrolled are making adequate progress.
Food and Clothes
In addition to basic school supplies, FAMA promotes further stability of the families by providing basic food rations and clothing for the families of the school students. FAMA regularly distributes corn meal, beans, oil and soap. Providing the families with foods also helps ensure that the children will remain in school. Otherwise, they would be forced to leave school to beg in order to eat. In addition to distributing clothing to the 87 families of school children, FAMA has provided clothes to more than 1000 Pygmies in Muyinga.
New Homes
Until FAMA's intervention in Muyinga, the Pygmy families lived in the trees or in huts made of leaves and straw. When it would rain, the entire family would be soaked through. These conditions made it virtually impossible for the children to remain in school. The rain also destroyed the school supplies that FAMA provided. To improve living conditions so that the children can have an opportunity to succeed and to encourage the families to remain in one place while the children are getting their education, FAMA initiated a housing project.To qualify for a house, the family must have a child in school and must produce its own bricks. An initial model home was constructed in 2008. To date 34 homes have been constructed and given to Pygmy families. Each home includes beds, mattresses, sheets, tables and chairs. The families that have received homes testify continually to how FAMA has transformed their lives. The remaining families are anxiously awaiting their turn.
Government Support and Future Projects
The national and local governments enthusiastically support FAMA's work among the Pygmies. The national government has given FAMA land on which to construct 100 homes free of charge. A local Pygmy senator who has been able to break out of the cycle of oppression was one of the first motivators in encouraging the Pygmy children to enroll in school. Other local authorities have thrown their full support behind the work of FAMA. Recently, the government gave FAMA a 14-acre parcel of land. FAMA has engaged an agronomist and will be training the Pygmies to grow their own food. This is a giant step forward in making them self-sufficient.
In addition to the projects underway, local authorities have requested that FAMA constructed and equip a free health care facility for the impoverished people of Muyinga. FAMA aims to complete this project in the next five years.
When FAMA began its work among the Pygmies of Muyinga, Burundi in 2007, the people were literally half-naked and afraid. Today, they have hope for the future and especially for their children. The entire face of a community is being transformed.
With your help, we can change the lives of all the Pygmies in Muyinga!
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| Pygmy child in front of traditional hut |
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| A Pygmy family moves into their new home, built by the family themselves in partnership with FAMA |
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