Tag: gihanga

Equalize!

hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, a lot of good things have happened these past days in Gihanga!

To celebrate World Aids Day 2022, Inyambo Stars together with RBP+ (an association of People living with HIV) organized the “Stop HIV stigma show” in the commune of Gihanga on the 3rd of December. I was very privileged to support them to organise this show for the third time.

During the opening speech I pointed out that it is very sad to see people still dying because of AIDS in 2022. And how shocking it is to hear children are still born with HIV, or of people who stop their medication because they heard they are Undetectable. This shows the need for all these talents to keep up their support to empower communities in Gihanga, Bubanza and all of Burundi on key health messages around HIV and AIDS. 

The show was all about using our community’s talents to empower people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS to learn about and build their capacity to fight HIV & AIDS and address HIV stigma. Combining various talents and arts forms is a great way to bring HIV education, and I am glad the Inyambo Stars share this passion with me. Share our talent and break HIV stigma! 

So, we brought together different talents: The fashionistas of Inyambo stars, the Indigenous Batwa Cultural group Ubumwe from Gahwazi, musical youth of Inyambo Voices, the supertalented artist Didy Love, and many more. Together we created a fantastic day for the community of Gihanga to remember. In all the performances key messages around HIV/AIDS came back like “fight HIV and AIDS but don’t stigmatize people living with HIV”, “Do HIV testing” and “Take medication every day”. 

Here is an impression of the day:

Getting ready for the show!
Opening the “Stop HIV stigma show”
Opening the show through traditional Burundian dance by the Batwa Cultural group Ubumwe
The fashionistas from club Inyambo Stars want to contribute to empowering young people to change the narrative on HIV and AIDS by normalizing the disease. Their wish is to organise more campaigns using fashion as an arts form to bring health messages beyond Gihanga, across Burundi. 
Gihanga music artist Didy Love, proud member of Inyambo stars, did an energetic performance while also sharing key HIV messages
Inyambo voices shared their recently released song on fighting HIV stigma

Our common goal as artists was to make sure that as many as possible young people would be able to engage with us on this day. I believe that can one day they can become our hivstigmafighters, that they will be listened to by other youth and will help to build a new generation that is open minded and better informed about HIV and AIDS. This is a how we equalize the system. 

I would like to thank the Administrator of Gihanga commune who gave us the permission for this great day and sent his first adviser to join us on. It is great to see them engage in our community and see what Inyambo Stars and other talents are able to show and give back to their community. I was also pleased by the presence of RBP+ and how they appreciated the support given by the Youth in Gihanga. Finally thanks to the DJs MC Chadou and MC Jerome, and Zoe Brand designers. Together we showed that one day we will win this battle! 

Partners of the “Stop HIV stigma show”

So this was the third “Stop HIV stigma show” in Gihanga community and I hope there are more to come. I am really excited to continue my support to Inyambo Stars and others to organise their next event. If you want to support them please do, they will be very grateful to continue developing and sharing their talents to break HIV stigma! 

Together we can! 

Peace,  

Eliane. 

Children are the future

hivstigmafighter

After five years absence, this year I was finally able to visit my Motherland Burundi again. My big dream was to rejoin the school children, parents and teachers in my village Murira, part of the commune of Gihanga . I really wanted to check how the primary school children are doing as during my last visit in 2017 I realized that many of them were following lessons sitting on the floor.

While back then I was able to find a temporary solution to do a quick repair of as many school benches to have less kids sitting on the floor, the work was from finished. So that visit was the start of dignity at Schools as every child has a right to quality education! Making sure school children have access to proper means such as school benches is part of that!

This year, thanks to my partners, I was able to give a huge boost to building the capacity of the Burundian team to repair even more benches, making sure they are really sturdy to last a long time. When I arrived in Burundi, I immediately teamed up with parents, teachers and local artisans to get our work going.

While the work was on-going I asked some children how they felt to sit on the floor while they are learning and they were quick to reply ”I get back aches, and after a day my knees and neck hurt very much”, “I have trouble to concentrate” and “I cannot write well because I am using my knees as a table”. I also asked about their dreams, why they are studying hard, so Kessia told me that her dream is to become a doctor, Fanny  wants to be a singer while Chris wants to become a model. But how can they make their dream come true when they are learning in such poor conditions? Every child has a right to education, they should not sit on the floor!

In Burundi they call young Children “Burundi Bw’ejo”  which means “ Burundi of tomorrow”. We all know how important good education is for children, they are our future. So we better act very fast! And that is what we did. Together with our local team we worked very hard for the children of Murira these past weeks and yesterday the moment arrived to finish our first 50 schools benches to help at least primary school children in Murira to attend their school in dignity. 

I was so proud to see the kids’ warm smiles and joy when they received the benches. So, while we are celebrating this success, there is so much more work to do since there are still more classes without chairs and my dream is that each primary school kid in the whole of Gihanga should be able to follow education in comfort.

While we are nearing the end of 2022, I am very confident that the Gihanga team will continue to work very hard for their “ Burundi of tomorrow” beyond this year as well.  They have really shown me that they are able to do so much more, so if their story inspires you to help them out, feel free to get in touch with me!

I feel so proud of the people of Gihanga to care for their children and I want to thank everyone who supported them, wherever you are in the World. Together we are bringing positive change for the Future Generation, Burundi Bw’Ejo.

Peace,

Eliane

Inyambo STARS on WAD2021

hivstigmafighter

On Saturday 4 December 2021, I helped Inyambo STARS to organise a local event to celebrate World AIDS Day. This was a day to show their community why they are true talents, showing their fashion skills AND committed to helping their community, especially supporting vulnerable people living with HIV in Gihanga, Burundi.

Inyambo STARS, RBP+ ( Reseau Burundais des Personnes vivant avec le VIH) with indonongo.org support, organised a total of three activities. And as large gatherings were not allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they really had to show their improvisation skills this time around!

The day started with a great Burundian tradition called Ibikorwa Rusangi, community work. All over the country, every Saturday morning from 8h00 the people of Burundi contribute collectively to keeping our community healthy and promoting good cross-cultural relations. They were joined by their parents, local representatives, shopkeepers and other community members.

Really, there is no way Inyambo STARS can perform their arts without maintaining good relations and giving back to their community. I know this gave them a lot of inspiration to stay connected and work together as one. What a great opportunity to connect the community of Gihanga to fighting HIV stigma in our country.

After Ibikorwa Rusangi, Inyambo STARS, a selection of people living with HIV and partners, marched together through Gihanga in solidarity with people living with HIV and to raise awareness on this year’s World AIDS Day theme: “End AIDS, end inequalities , end pandemics”. Did you know that in Gihanga there are 246 people living with HIV, 84 men and 162 women? Of them 29 are younger than 29 years, of which 8 boys and 21 girls.

Yes, normally Inyambo STARS would now have done a fashion show or catwalk, but I do believe this March together with people living with HIV did really help them to unify with the HIV community.

They closed the day by expressing solidarity and support to vulnerable people living with HIV. The cordinator of RBP+ reinforced the message to the community of the importance of staying on medication and going to the health centre for regular check-ups. She also called upon pregnant women to do a HIV test so they can detect any new HIV cases to prevent neonatal HIV.

Helping Inyanmbo STARS and their partners to support people living with HIV in Gihanga during World AIDS Day, inspires me a lot and gives me so much positive energy to continue making impact in my community of Gihanga and possibly in the whole of Burundi.

Peace, Eliane

A big applause to the real STARS of the day!

Photo impression – Stop HIV stigma Show

hivstigmafighter

Last Saturday 5 December I organised the “Stop HIV stigma Show” in my hometown, Gihanga, Burundi. I believe that by organising these type of events that one day my dream will come true: To defeat HIV stigma in our community! Here you find an impression of this beautiful day.

Pictures of this day are made courtesy of Ingabire Media and Chouman. Enjoy! Peace, Eliane

Here are a few pictures of the fashion show organised by the lovely people of the Fit Fashion Fire Team:

There was a lot of entertainment as well. Multi-talent Bryere in a traditional outfit playing the igondera, gifted Devie with a beautiful HIV stigmafighter button, the brilliant girls of Amazing Team, a group of awesome visuallly impaired singers from Lycee Kanura Band, a young performer from Fit Fashion Fire Team, and our two enthousiastic MCs Emi-Bravo and Chadou:

 

Then there was lots of important speakers during the event. The co-organiser Irene Kundubumwe, the representative of the network for people living with HIV in Bubanza Province Madame Kanyana Daphrose, national association of young people living with HIV Nshimirimana Salvator and Chantal Mbonankira

And to finish this beautiful photo impression, here you see my Batwa friends posing in front of the banner for the show. These were my real guests of honour and had a well deserved frontrow seat during this amazing day in Gihanga. Mwarakoze!