Background & How to help

As you may know, we met these dear people when we started an informal Christian Science church group when we lived at Lake of the Ozarks. We had 3-4 regular folks from the US, and then a Christian Science Nurse living in St. Louis, who used to live in the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania, asked if his friends could attend church online. Of course they could! From that first Sunday of 20 or so visitors on, they attended church, eager to participate, joyful, loving, and changing our lives forever. Until they welcomed us to their family, we weren’t quite aware of how tempted we were to second guess goodness and take a jaded look at life; they are guileless and utterly sincere. They have little to nothing, but they say they have all because they have God. If that isn’t a life lesson, I don’t know what is.

Over the course of knowing them, there have been scuffles in the camp—attacks, actually. Some have been robbed, their friends injured when Tanzanian police randomly target the camp. But a week and a half ago, there was a concentrated, calibrated and continuous violent attack. Five families’ homes were destroyed (entirely razed, not be rebuilt). Though it is illegal according to UNHCR Article 23—wherein refugees cannot be forcefully repatriated [returned to their country], the police have posted names of families’ homes that were destroyed demanding they return to Burundi. Many of our friends have been at the camp for most of their lives and have nothing to return to in Burundi. However, the goal of the Tanzanian police is to have no Burundian refugees left in Nyarugusu camp within 7 weeks.

While at the camp, these precious individuals have educated themselves, built schools to educate others, and started a foundation for the orphans in their community, while they themselves have little to nothing. They call us “Mum” and “Dad,” which as you can imagine, chokes us up nearly every time! Our “kids” live on another continent!

Though the prospect of violence and forceful repatriation is detestable, and Burundi isn’t entirely safe, the thought of them returning to their native country feels right. When we asked our Burundian friend who left the US (and is not allowed to return) and is now living in Burundi (who has been our contact and faithful source of information) if those in the camp would voluntarily return to Burundi if they knew they had support, he said without hesitation, “Oh yes.” So we have been working with him to figure out what would be most helpful in terms of support, but still allowing them to work out their own future. Once they decide to leave the camp, UNICEF has a convoy of buses once or twice a week and they sign up to go. We could go on and on about how wonderful these precious ones are and are happy to answer any questions. Thank you again for your consideration!

Thank you so much for your consideration; please this site with anyone else you think may be interested in helping.

Donations can be made through:

Zelle: 707-540-2323

Venmo: @whitneybL

PayPal: threetreesinc@mac.com

*Please make a note that your donation is for Burundians