Background

Until the mid-1990s, the village of Ruvumu, far from political decision-making centres, had no school facilities.

Some of the children from the village, who attended the schools, had to walk dozens of kilometers, morning, and evening, to get to their schools and back.

For many years, other children from the village were hosted by distant or family relatives who lived closer to schools. It was only on weekends or school holidays that these children were reunited with their immediate family members.

Pierre Kirandage’s children were among those who had benefited from this parental or friend support. These individuals had provided accommodation to his children while they attended school outside the village.

Pierre Kirandage wanted to facilitate access to education for all students. He began by offering a 2-hectare plot of land in Ruvumu to build a school.

Thanks to Pierre Kirandage’s assistance, and the support of the Ruvumu population and the church, the long-awaited elementary school was built in September 1994.

The elementary school filled the learning needs of many children in the village whose access to education had been very difficult. Pierre Kirandage, as the school’s promoter, led the development committee in collaboration with his son Seth Niyongabo, who later became a teacher at the school.

Pierre Kirandage also secured assistance from the non-profit organization TWITEZIMBERE (Let’s Mobilize for our Development) which paid for the roof and the desks at the school.

Although there was now a school in the village, many children were still unable to attend the school because their families lacked the financial resources to pay the school fees, which were at the time equivalent to $2 a child, per school year.

These fees were compulsory in Burundi until 2005 for all elementary school students. The Foundation Accès-École-Pierre Kirandage was therefore created in 2004, to assist those children whose families lacked the financial resources to send their children to school.

By offering the land, Pierre Kirandage helped his community. Thanks to his generosity and dedication an elementary school was built in the Ruvumu village. In so doing, he championed education in his village and facilitated students’ access to education. It is to pay tribute to him and to continue his work that the Foundation bears his name.

Thanks to the establishment of this school, teachers originally from Ruvumu have found jobs in the community. As such, the school also contributes to improving the economic and social situation of the village.