Discover how children are navigating poverty, trauma, and a fragile education system — and how local efforts are giving them the support and strength to rise.
Burundi is a small country with a long history of political instability, poverty, and conflict. While peace has returned, many children continue to carry the weight of past violence and ongoing hardship. These are the three most pressing challenges facing children today:
Over 65% of Burundians live in poverty, and many children suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Daily meals are uncertain, and many families depend on subsistence farming that’s vulnerable to drought and crop failure.
Generations of children have grown up amid displacement, civil unrest, or the legacy of violence. Emotional trauma is common, yet mental health support remains nearly nonexistent in schools and communities.
While enrollment in primary school is high, schools are often overcrowded, underfunded, and lack trained teachers. Rural children — especially girls — face long walks to school and pressure to drop out early.
Despite these challenges, Uganda’s children remain full of hope — dreaming of education, health, and opportunities for a better tomorrow.
At iam4allkids.org, we raise awareness for the stories that rarely make headlines — children living on the margins, caught between recovery and survival. In Burundi, we support the people building healing, nutrition, and education into children’s lives, even in the most fragile settings.
We:
Share stories of hunger, hope, and survival from Burundi’s rural villages
Support organizations creating trauma-informed learning spaces and emotional support systems
Highlight education programs bringing materials, teachers, and dignity back into struggling schools
Even in silence and scarcity, we help these children’s voices be heard.
Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world — and its children carry that burden most of all.
Nearly half of children under five suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.
Poverty, distance, and instability keep many children out of school or stuck in overcrowded classrooms.
Local organizations are stepping up with creativity and compassion — but they need more support to scale their impact.
We believe Burundi’s children have survived enough. It’s time the world stood beside them to build something better.
Even in the toughest conditions, hope grows:
In hillside villages, women-led kitchens are serving porridge to children who would otherwise go hungry.
In schoolyards without desks or books, teachers are showing up every day to teach — with nothing but heart.
In communities still healing from conflict, children are learning to name their feelings, draw their pain, and begin to heal.
Thanks to your support, these stories are no longer hidden.
Every act of care helps a child in Burundi hold on — and move forward.
In Burundi’s rural hillsides, FVS-AMADE runs a network of care centers for orphaned and vulnerable children. These centers provide meals, health checkups, schooling support, and community mentoring for kids who have lost one or both parents — often to poverty or past conflict.
Caregivers, often local women, create safe environments where children feel protected and heard. Beyond food and schooling, FVS-AMADE teaches farming skills, hygiene, and emotional resilience to help youth build self-sufficiency.
For children with no one left to count on, FVS-AMADE becomes a new kind of family — one that feeds both the body and the heart.
Founded by a survivor of Burundi’s civil war, Maison Shalom was created to give children a chance at healing and happiness. Through trauma-informed education, art therapy, and holistic community programs, the organization helps children rebuild their sense of safety and self-worth.
From storytelling circles to drawing classes and teen mentorship groups, children are given space to express what they’ve lived through — and imagine something more. Their school program also supports children in vulnerable families with supplies, uniforms, and school meals.
Maison Shalom doesn’t just restore hope. It restores the belief that every child deserves a joyful, meaningful life.
In early 2023, FVS-AMADE and local farmers joined forces to launch the Hillside Meal Drive, a campaign to feed over 500 children daily in villages outside Gitega. With firewood stoves, donated beans and maize, and handmade bowls, women from each village came together to prepare warm meals for children walking long distances to school.
The initiative transformed how children learned. Hunger no longer sat between them and their lessons. Energy returned to classrooms, and absenteeism dropped almost overnight.
More than a food program, the Meal Drive became a daily reminder that even in poverty, generosity can still thrive.
In a small, sunlit room in Bujumbura, dozens of children gather every Saturday for Children’s Story Circle, an initiative by Maison Shalom to help children open up about trauma, grief, and hope. The format is simple: listen, draw, write, and share.
Some children write about things they’ve seen. Others draw pictures of missing parents or safe homes they dream of. Facilitators gently guide them toward language, courage, and comfort.
Week by week, trust is built. Stories get louder. Smiles return. And children begin to understand: they are not alone.
Meet the ten organizations making extraordinary strides in improving the lives of Burundi’s children — one community at a time.
Supporting orphaned and vulnerable children with food, health, education, and care.
Providing trauma recovery, education, and emotional healing for war-affected youth.
Offering community-based health and youth empowerment services in underserved areas.
Supporting long-term family care and education for children without parental support.
Advocating for girls’ education and protection against early marriage and abuse.
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