Supporting our Burundi Family 

Welcome, and thank you for visiting!

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Our Burundian friends living in Tanzania need of our help.

 

Camp Nyarugusu is the 2nd largest United Nations Refugee Camp in the world. The short story is, our friends are being forcefully repatriated by the Tanzanian police (this is illegal). Their homes are being razed and they are being forced to go back to Burundi, the poorest country in the world that is unstable and where they have no property or home, and seemingly limited prospects. For more background information, please read below the signature line and please feel free to reach out with questions. For now, we are asking if you are able to financially support families with enough food for six weeks to just get them to their home country and start to get settled. With at least the question of food taken care of, they can begin to find their footing.

 

With the help of a friend in Burundi who used to live in the camp, we figured $77 would be enough to feed one person for six weeks (this would be 10 kilograms of rice, 5 k of maize, 5 of beans). We are still doing a count of how many individuals in how many families. There are 16 Mother Church members, plus regular attendees and family members. We will get back to you with a final count, as well as update you. On Tuesday, two families out of five families who lost their homes (a total of nine people) are on a convoy to Burundi from the camp. We are only asking to help the dear ones we know, even though all Burundians are being forcefully repatriated.​

 

As you may be aware, the US government is in no position to help or enforce UN laws (and USAid has been dismantled). We have called UN agencies and they are only taking calls from people being detained by ICE.

 

First of all, your prayers are most needed and appreciated. If in addition, you wish to send a financial donation of any size (even $20 would be a great help), we will forward the funds to our friend in Burundi, who will distribute as needed. (He always sends receipts, if you care to see them.) Please know that our friends at the camp have no idea this is being organized on their behalf. We carefully considered doing a GoFundMe but felt it would be too public and would invite unwelcome attention. They have not asked for anything but our prayers and are very shy about telling us about the violence in order to protect us and maintain their dignity.