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Matana Child-Friendly School Has Celebrated Tenth Anniversary

Bywebmaster

Oct 22, 2024
The legal representative of the FVS-Children’s Friends Association and the Minister of External Relations and Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco holding a signed memorandum of understanding on the renewal of the partnership to support the Matana Child-Friendly School

BURURI, October 22nd (ABP) – The Family to Defeat AIDS (FVS-Children’s Friends) celebrated, on Saturday, October 19, 2024, at Gitandu in Matana district of Bururi province, the tenth anniversary of its flagship project “Matana Child-Friendly School” and awarded certificates of completion of general post-basic education to more than 70 graduates counting for the 5th promotion.

The ceremonies marking the celebration of the 10th  anniversary of the Matana child-friendly school, which began with a thanksgiving mass, were attended by both national and foreign authorities, namely, the Minister of External Relations and Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco, Ms. Isabelle Berro Amadeï, the representative of the Burundian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, Egide Ndikuriyo; the delegate of the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Claude Nkurunziza; the Deputy Secretary General of the CNDD-FDD party, Cyriaque Nshimirimana; the parliamentarians elected in the Bururi constituency; the Governor of the Bururi province, Léonidas Bandenzamaso; the Secretary General of the World Association of Children’s Friends (AMADE); the Chairperson of the Rotary Club of the Figeac City in France; the administrator of the Matana district and the religious leaders.

View of the participants

In her speech, the legal representative of the FVS-Children’s Friends and initiator of the Matana child-friendly school, Ms. Spès Nihangaza, first recalled that the FVS-Children’s Friends association took inception in 1992, a period during which the AIDS pandemic was wreaking havoc because, she explained, there were no drugs to treat the pandemic to the point that any infected person ended up dying.

“Not having the capacity to help infected people survive, we decided to help their children to go to school. But, despite all the efforts made to enroll all these children in primary school, only 46% managed to access secondary school,” Spès Nihangaza deplored.

She stressed that the causes that prevented these children from continuing their secondary education were multiple. These included the overload of household chores; the phenomenon of unwanted pregnancies and sometimes the arrangement of early marriages among adolescent girls; and the departure of teenage boys to foreign countries, particularly to Tanzania to look for job.

“Noting all the obstacles that prevented us from achieving our goal of making these vulnerable children autonomous, we got the idea of ​​creating an inclusive school that takes into account children whose parents are able to pay school fees as well as orphaned and vulnerable children who must be supported to continue their studies,” the representative of the FVS-Children’s Friends revealed.

Spès Nihangaza pointed out that the project to create a child-friendly school, which was once considered a dream, has become true thanks to partners including the government of the Principality of Monaco, and then AMADE and the Rotary Club.

She also specified that the child-friendly school of Matana is a co-ed school to give equal chance to both boys and girls; a boarding school to allow students to focus on their studies; a school with high-quality teaching to prepare young people who will be competent and honest leaders; and also a school that reconciles science and positive human values ​​such as integrity, leadership, responsibility, excellence, honesty, justice, truth and fairness.

For her part, the Minister of External Relations and Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco, Isabelle Berro Amadeï, said she was very happy to be in Matana with her delegation, and very honored to represent the government of the Principality of Monaco at the ten-year celebrations of that magnificent child-friendly school. She pointed out that this school is, in fact, a symbolic project of Monaco’s development cooperation policy. She recalled that on the occasion of the inauguration of that school in 2014, the Burundian government’s desire to place education at the heart of its national poverty reduction strategy had been highlighted, reassuring that the government of Monaco commends this decision, which has become a reality through free education since 2005 and improved access for girls to the school system.

Isabelle Berro Amadeï took the opportunity to announce that the Principality of Monaco will continue to support the child-friendly school for three more years until 2027.

The legal representative of the FVS-Children’s Friends Association and the Minister of External Relations and Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco exchange a memorandum of understanding on the renewal of the partnership to support the Matana Child-Friendly School in its journey towards excellence

“All these students gathered here today are finally your children, you who are so rightly nicknamed the mother of 36,000 children. These children are very lucky to have a mother like you, thank you very much dear Spès, for your involvement and your unwavering commitment throughout these years!, ” she paid respect to the legal representative of the FVS-Children’s Friends for her fight for children’s rights, for over 30 years.

The Minister of External Relations and Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco finally commended and appreciated the warm welcome reserved for her and her delegation, before congratulating the graduates of the 5th promotion called “the dynamics” (the latter passed the 2021 national contest at 100%), encouraging the students who are still at school and wishing a very happy anniversary to the Matana child-friendly school.

The representative of the vulnerable students studying at the Matana Child-Friendly School, Jeannette Nihorimbere, thanked the Almighty who placed the right people in their lives, such as the legal representative of the FVS-Child-Friendly School, AMADE and the State of Monaco who contributed to their education.

The graduates of the 5th promotion pose with distinguished guests

“We are grateful because, despite our poor living conditions, we had the chance to study, and to be accommodated. You showcased compassion and taught us to help our neighbors,” she said, sincerely thanking Ms. Nihangaza, her partners and the educators for giving them the chance to study in good conditions.

The director of the child-friendly school of Matana, Gilbert Rucintango, said that this school started on September 14, 2014 with 60 students including 28 girls and 32 boys, who were pedagogically supervised by 6 teachers. Today, the school has a total of 603 students including 289 girls and 314 boys, pedagogically supervised by 32 full-time teachers, he disclosed.

“Our reference school has already produced good performance. It has already participated in the national contest 8 times. Three consecutive editions out of eight, our school has ranked among the top ten schools in the country, while seven times out of eight, the school has recorded 100% success rates with average rates of over 70%,” revealed the director of the school, adding that two students won prizes during the crowning of the top ten schools in the national contest, respectively for the 2018 and 2020 editions.

To that end, the school’s representation did not fail to award envelope gifts to some members of the school personnel that stood out for their loyalty during the ten years, in order to encourage them to remain loyal and move forward. Gifts of paintings made by the students were also awarded to the partners of the school, thus symbolizing the latter’s compassion and love for the children. The graduates of the 5th promotion also demonstrated their spirit of gratitude by awarding envelope gifts to the 4 teachers who inspired them a lot.

It is worthy to note that before proceeding with the granting of certificates to more than 70 finalists in economic sciences, maths-physics, and biochemistry and earth sciences, the legal representative of the FVS-Children’s Friends Association and the Minister of External Relations and Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco signed a memorandum of understanding on the renewal of the partnership to support that school in its journey towards excellence.

Over 70 finalists were awarded certificates of completion of general post-basic education

 


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