Seeds Bloom Moral Character

A five-year drought and 13-year civil war left Burundi with little infrastructure or water to allow Sinanxwa Daphroso’s family to eat even once per day. But a Food for the Hungry food and seed distribution project transformed this family inside and out.

Bean and sorghum seeds improved the family’s harvest to where they now eat twice per day – beans and bread both times.

 

 

 

“Many times I have asked God to feed me,” Daphroso says, “I tell my children that they must try to survive on what we have. I say that if you steal food you might go to prison. We would have no way to help you. When we have a lot, you must thank God; when we have a little, you must thank God.”

Daphroso believes that the food and seeds project has provided more than a way to meet the family’s physical needs. She thanks God for her family’s peace and hope. They finally look forward to a productive future lived with integrity and gratitude to God

What We Do

Agriculture & Environment: Disease-resistant cassava multiplication, agricultural training, food for work

Emergency Relief: Emergency food distributions.

Child Development & Education: Education support program, child rights, medical care, school infrastructure support, parenting support, social clubs, biblical trainings.

Economic Development & Livelihoods: Animal distributions, husbandry trainings, coffee washing cooperative development.

Health & Nutrition: Health clinic nutritional support, public health training.

Infrastructure: Medical supply distribution, school construction.

Food for the Hungry began work in Burundi in 2007 as an extension office of Food for the Hungry in Rwanda. Early efforts focused on agriculture, food security, and medical supply distribution which expanded as churches, leaders, and families began working together to move families beyond meeting basic survival needs.

Nonetheless, Burundi is still a hard place. It’s the kind of place that makes you flinch – where people regularly die from hunger and related causes because of both the drought and a crop-decimating. Children wear torn clothes, their stomachs bloated due to malnutrition. Mud and grass homes lean precariously to one side. Clean water is hard to come by and almost always involves traveling great distances to obtain. Electricity is infrequent in many areas, non-existent in most. The presence of armed soldiers and police are reminders that peace after a 13-year civil war is fragile. The trauma of war is written on many faces. More than half of the people live on less than $1 a day.