I fled to Tanzania with my family in 1994. The journey took a whole week and we spent nights in the bush during our unfortunate trip. We suffered a lot during our journey; hunger, diseases, cold, sun... and we eventually reached our destination where we were taken care of by the UNHCR in terms of food, shelter and other needs like school for our children.
I am 30 now and the mother of 7 children, 3 of whom were born in refugee camp in Tanzania. It is in July 2006 that I decided to come back to Burundi because life was not that easy in those camps. We walked all the way from Tanzania to Burundi by crossing the Rumpungwe river and what a surprise, when we arrived home, there was nothing, everything was destroyed and stolen. Our house was just a memory and our fields were ruined and empty. My husband has no job other than working on our farm and that is my job too. When the weather is good, we can have enough to feed our family. However, over the last few years, there has been either too little or too much rain and both meant we were short of food.
During the time I have been here things have got much better. I sleep quietly in my house with my family. The only challenge we now have is poverty. I have a property of 2 ha where I grow Soya, beans, sorghum and banana. I also have a house covered by grass. I would like to have a house with bricks but currently we can't afford one.
I was in situation where I needed fertilizers to improve my crops. When I need extra money, for things like sending my children to school, paying hospital bills and so on, there was no way I could solve it. Our fields were under terrible pressure of erosion, This was the situation when Cord found me and my family. They gave me three goats in December 2006; I have the manure for my fields and I am now proud to be counted among families that have animals in their homes. The goats have already two young goats and very soon, I will give the goats to the next beneficiary and from that day onwards, I will own the goats. Then I can sell one of them for my needs in case of trouble, or eat it when there is a big celebration.
Cord provided me with forage plants, they gave me 260 cuttings of trypsacum that I planted in my fields and this is helpful in a double way, feeding the goats and the animals in general and protecting the soil from erosion. Cord also has a vet monitoring our animals. He takes care of them and things have been very good so far. Cord has improved my life in so many ways.
