Burundi – “In Favour of Women”: Solidaridad Don Bosco

14 February 2017

(ANS – Rukago) – “Sexual violence, the stigma of HIV and high maternal mortality block the development of women in Burundi, the small great forsaken country of Central Africa”. The title of a reportage published on the daily “El País” – “Daughters of the Cursed Great Lakes” – represents well the crude reality of the women of that land, victims of abuses, violence and habitual violations. In front of all this, the Spanish Salesian NGO “Solidaridad Don Bosco” (Don Bosco Solidarity) remains firm in its work in favour of women.

In the month of January “Solidaridad Don Bosco” undertook the challenge of beginning to work in a new country: Burundi. This is one of the poorest countries of the world, with a population with an average age below 18, who mostly live in rural areas, where women are often mistreated and deprived of the basic rights of every human being. “The team of the NGOs is well motivated to implement initiatives, projects and plans that help the population and especially women to have better opportunities for the future”.

“Solidaridad Don Bosco” has been characterized in the past years for its work in favour of women. We can mention the initiatives in El Alto - Bolivia, which try to strengthen the role of women through literacy, formation and qualified skills. Neither can we ignore the work that is being done in Mador, Morocco, where they created workshops of dressmaking and embroidery for the formation and training to work of young ladies at risk of social exclusion. The same thing was done in Kara, Togo, where the literacy process involves over 1000 women of the rural communities.

Project “Improving the Opportunities of Women in Rukago (Burundi)” is being implemented at the “Don Bosco” Vocational Training Centre of Buterere, run by the Salesians of the rural community of Rukago, in Northern Burundi.

The project aims at fostering the participation of young women in the field of vocational training and because of this new courses have been opened of cooking and hotel management, as well as workshops to sensitize the population on the themes of gender equality and in support of women’s quality employment.

The claim of the legitimate rights of women stems from the “firm conviction that man and woman have the same dignity and pose profound questions to the Church”, as Pope Francis underscored.

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