NGO receives 488,953 euro to repatriate teachers, pupils

Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted 488,953 euros (US $598,087) on Tuesday to the Belgian NGO, Caraes, to repatriate Burundian secondary school teachers and pupils living in Tanzania refugee camps, an official said from Brussels. The ministry’s deputy spokesman, Francois Dumont, said the grant was a continuation of Belgium’s aid to the education sector of Burundians in these camps. An official of Caraes (Caritate Aegrorum Servi), Benjamin Nyssen, said some 7,500 pupils - among whom 28 percent are girls - and 442 teachers were targeted under the project due to end in February 2007. "We are starting in September with the training of teachers in the camps," said Nyssen, who is in charge of the Ahadi project initiated by refugee teachers and pupils to support their studies. Ahadi is the Swahili word for "promise and commitment". Nyssen said among the pupils who were to benefit from the project 2,000 were still in the Tanzanian camps; another 2,000 in IDP camps; and some 3,500 former IDPs who had already resettled in their home villages. "Each returning pupil will receive a school kit, but girls will receive extra specific hygienic materials," Nyssen said. He also said teachers would be given bonuses, pending payment of their salaries by the government. Apart from training and material aid, Nyssen said the funds were also meant to be used to rehabilitate 10 schools and enable the returnees to attend classes without paying their entire school fees. "They will have access to education by paying a token amount and what they could afford," Nyssen added. This is the second grant Belgium has given Burundi, its former colony, in a week. On Monday, Belgium granted Burundi 3.8 million euros (approx US $4.6 million). Brussels said it was part of a six-year funding programme to make the country’s public institutions, especially those involved with good governance and social services, more efficient. Also on Tuesday, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would support the newly-elected government in Burundi, by paying the indemnities of transitional government officials. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has full recognition of the need to help solve the problems of those who served under the transition and contributed to its success," Marie-Christine Lanser-Reusken, the ministry’s spokeswoman, said on Tuesday. [BURUNDI: Belgium grants 3.8 million euros for good governance]