Malta – Turning Burundi’s Child Street Beggars to School Children

02 March 2021

(ANS – Sliema) – The Maltese National Federation of Past Pupils and Friends of Don Bosco and the “Association des Anciens de Don Bosco au Burundi” have launched a new project “Giving Every Child a Chance – Helping Poor Burundi Children”. This partnership project is supporting 38 children who are among the poorest in Burundi as they are orphaned children who do not have the means to attend school and spend their time on the streets living the life of beggars. The aim of the project is to support these children in their education as well as to support some of their mothers to help them earn a living and teach them skills on healthy cooking, budgeting and try to help them access work to earn a living.

The project started in September 2020, with the Maltese National Federation launching an appeal to benefactors to help us fundraise toward this project and ADB Burundi. The project includes:

- Integration, animation, and supervision of children through games, singing and dancing.

- Purchase of school uniforms and stationary.

- Monitoring of children's school education.

- Support, supervision and training of mothers.

- Help children revise lessons and do their homework.

- Paying for School fees for children.

The children’s attendance at school has now become regular and they also have been introduced to prayer. For Christmas, the 38 children were, for the first time, taken to the local church to celebrate Christmas. They were given new T-shirts with the picture of Don Bosco and Mary Help of Christians.

The project has also brought positive results in the locality where those children were born and live. Most of these children were beggars and wandered the streets, but after taking them to school and providing them with after school activities, child begging on the streets has declined. This positive change impressed people in their locality and brought much satisfaction to their mothers.

For the feast of St. John Bosco, the Burundi Past Pupils organised a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians in Buterere. On the feast day, they celebrated mass in their parish Pacis Regina of Kinando. After mass, the children and their mothers were invited for a meal to celebrate the feast of St. John Bosco.

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