Community Development is one of our three programmes. Through Abana Bacu, Kazi ya Mama and Afya ya Mama, we work alongside women’s groups in Bujumbura and in the provinces where our activities take place, on their children’s education, their family income and their health.
This is our story archive for the programme. For what the programme is, see Community Development.
Abana Bacu: following children’s education
Abana Bacu means “our children”. Through this initiative we accompany mothers in the groups we work with so that they can follow their children’s schooling. The work has two regular moments: a review of the school year with an education specialist, and school materials at the start of the year.
The initiative began with Run Town Ladies, as we described in our first Abana Bacu story from 2023. Each year since, the group has met to go through the year that ended: in August 2024 the women reviewed their children’s progress and the challenges they faced with Father Jean-Paul Ndayikengurukiye of Don Bosco Buterere, and in September 2025 the review brought Run Town Ladies and Baho Urwize into the same sessions, with sessions on parental responsibility, entrepreneurship and sexual and reproductive health.
Alongside the review, we provide school materials. In September 2024 the support went to Run Town Ladies; in October 2025 more than 50 children from the families we accompany received materials. In September 2026 we brought mothers and their children together for a back-to-school dialogue on what parents, children, teachers and the community expect of one another.
- 2023 · Abana Bacu 2023: supporting children’s education
- August 2024 · Abana Bacu women review the school year
- September 2024 · Abana Bacu provides school supplies to Runtown Ladies
- September 2025 · Abana Bacu brings two women’s groups together around children’s education
- October 2025 · More than 50 children receive school materials through Abana Bacu
- 9 September 2026 · Abana Bacu brought families together for a back-to-school dialogue
Kazi ya Mama: women’s work and income
Kazi ya Mama supports women’s groups engaged in low-income activities and works to strengthen their business skills. The work moves between individual coaching, group training and exchanges between groups from different provinces.
In 2024 we held individual coaching interviews with 12 members of Run Town Ladies, with Rema Burundi and Equity and Associates, covering each woman’s project and the credit she expected to manage. On 8 March 2024 the same group met for a Share and Talk session on evaluation and solidarity, and in February and March 2025 we ran a business-planning workshop in Gitega with AFSC Burundi for cooperatives and associations from Bujumbura, Gitega and Rumonge.
The partnerships behind the group matter to the results. In August 2025 we welcomed Sally Botteley of Rema England to meet Run Town Ladies, whose members had received a loan from Rema Burundi. In March 2026 women traders from Bujumbura travelled to Rumonge to compare challenges with traders there and to explore cooperation on supply and distribution. And in October 2025 women from the groups spoke on a Bujumbura panel about solidarity and financial independence, alongside our Director General.
- 2024 · Individual coaching for Run Town Ladies
- 8 March 2024 · Share and Talk with Runtown Ladies
- 27 February to 1 March 2025 · Business-planning workshop with AFSC support in Gitega
- August 2025 · Rema England representative visits Runtown Ladies
- 20 March 2026 · Women traders in Bujumbura and Rumonge explore shared business opportunities
- October 2025 · Women supported by Ingiro speak at a Bujumbura panel
Afya ya Mama: maternal health
Afya ya Mama is our maternal health initiative. No activity story has been published for it yet, because we publish a story once the activity and its details are documented. In the meantime we report on national maternal health work, such as the launch of the WHO maternal and neonatal health campaign in Burundi in April 2025.
We also follow the health work that reaches adolescents and young people in our provinces, such as the Mwanga+ artistic caravan in the Musenyi refugee camps in Rutana, which uses music and theatre to share sexual and reproductive health information with PSI Burundi and UNFPA as partners.
How the three initiatives connect
The same women often appear in all three. A mother who reviews her child’s school year with Abana Bacu is often the trader who joins a Kazi ya Mama coaching session, and the same groups take part in our health and media work. Working through one relationship rather than three separate projects is what allows the support to hold over years.
