I’ve just returned from a wonderful visit to our Five Talents programs in Burundi. After multiple, negative Covid-19 tests, a host of security checks, and quarantining in Nairobi and Bujumbura, I was blessed by the warm hospitality and generosity of our friends and partners in Burundi.
Church leaders welcomed me into their homes and congregations. I met with savings groups, literacy groups, and new entrepreneurs. Each person testified to the impact of literacy and community savings.
Glorie shared how grateful she was for her savings group…. she spoke with incredible self-confidence and pride about her accomplishments and of “what God had granted her. I have clothes, as you can see!” she beamed!
She had not been to school like most people of her Twa ethnic group, and she couldn’t send her children to school either. She was sad that she didn’t know as much as children in nursery school, and she felt that her story would be repeated in the lives of her children. Her children were strongly stigmatized since they only had one set of clothes, so they never had clean clothes to wear.
The Power of Literacy
Glorie shares her story during a savings group meeting in Burundi.
One day through a local church, Glorie was invited to join a literacy group. She learned to read and write and then moved on to become part of a savings group. She learned things she never imagined she could.
Glorie was now literate, and once she learned to save some money, her first priority was sending her children to school. Even though her kids were stigmatized as unclean, they at least were learning, and she could even help them with their homework, since she could read! Glorie persevered, selling vegetables and saving money bit by bit. “I learned everything I know from the group lessons: how to cultivate vegetables for selling, how to have good hygiene, how to properly take care of my family.”
Eventually Glorie was able to buy a small plot of land to cultivate more vegetables, and she saved enough to buy her children clothes, food, and other necessities that we often take completely for granted. “We now eat our meals properly at a table and use plates,” she said.
Glorie had a message for others in her community: “Those who skip this opportunity of being part of the literacy and savings group program are very much missing out! Everything I know, I have learned here!”
Maria Owen is the Program Manager for Five Talents USA.