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Burundi - The Mothers' Union Literacy Project
Burundi is among the underdeveloped countries whose rate of illiteracy for women is very high. Some 67% are illiterate and many live off agriculture using archaic tools and old technology. The need for education is tremendous to change and improve that way of living.
But the best way to heal an illness is first to know it. The question we should first raise is “Why is the situation like this?”
There are many factors that contributed to the illiteracy of women. Among them are socio-cultural constraints, financial problems, lack of motivation and even unconsciousness of the need. Indeed, a traditional woman should not appear and speak in public, therefore it is useless for her to go to school; what is important for her is to get married. And because of financial problems, the priority is given to boys. For others, they are not motivated because they see that very few women have access to high responsibility and they drop out after primary school to help their mothers.
In a situation like this, one is to understand how important and hopeful is the Mothers' Union Literacy Project whose aim is the empowerment of women, through literacy, to bring about social change towards a more equitable society and to reach a sustainable development.
We organise women in small circles of about 20 persons. We help them to choose local facilitators familiar to them and local committees to lead the circles. After the groups are organised, we help them to identify their needs and their priorities. It is wonderful to see how the women are active, how they express their points of view, and how they share their experiences in order to improve what has gone wrong. It is a real functional literacy and an ongoing education.
So the Mothers' Union Literacy Project is very important for families in Burundi, in so far as it will improve the way of living such as giving health education, fighting against cultural elements which oppress women. The consequences will be the reduction of mortality rate, the increase of the production and income of families and finally will raise the status of women and integrate them in the development planning of our country. Someone said “educating a man is only educating one person, but educating a woman is educating the whole society.” By educating women, the Mothers' Union will have contributed to the improvement of the whole society and to the protection of future generations.
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