The minority Batwa people in Burundi are racially oppressed and marginalized. Evariste Ndikumana, one of the few Batwa people to have attended high school and college, is a new partner with African Road. We have known him for seven years, and have seen his ins
piration and dedication.
Evariste used his own meager funds to begin a health cli
nic in a community of Batwa living by the capital city’s landfill. African Road has started our partnership with Evariste by funding his clinic, to provide more time with doctors and more medical supplies and medications. This is already transforming the lives of hundreds of people who could not hope to get care before.
In Burundi, birth certificates are required for every basic government right – voting, healthcare, financial assistance, schooling, etc. But receiving a birth certificate is expensive for people living in poverty, and requires the parents to have a legally registered marriage license, also expensive and requiring birth certificates. So through generations of poverty and discrimination, the Batwa people are shut out.
Evariste has dreamed of a project to register all Batwa people, providing the funds and administrative support to walk families through the process of getting legal marriage licenses and birth certificates. We’d like to help him realize this project! This is our mission, to find people like Evariste who are transforming the lives of people like the Batwa, and walk alongside them.