Burundi is the fifth poorest country in Africa.
Eighty per cent of the population live in poverty. The prolonged engagement in civil war, which disrupted and endangered the lives of many families, broken homes and extreme poverty have forced innumerable children onto the streets.
Poverty
Burundi has a population of 11.6 million and 5.9 million or 50.4% are children under 18 years of age. (2018) Being deprived of their childhood is one of the terrible consequences of poverty. A good number of these children are orphans whose parents may have died during the conflicts or succumbed to diseases due to extreme economic hardship and deprivation.
Health Threat
The infant mortality rate in Burundi is rather high. There are 72 deaths out of 1000 children before their 5th birthday. The health facilities are generally in poor conditions. There is a lack of medical hygiene, insufficient medical materials and a dearth in qualified health personnel. Coupled with viruses and widespread infectious diseases, including HIV, many of the young vulnerable children cannot survive.
Lack of Access to Clean Drinking Water
In Burundi around half of the population has no access to drinkable water. Numerous children most particularly those living in rural areas have no choice but to drink and eat food cooked with contaminated water. Needless to say, this has serious consequences to their health and can cut their life short.
lack of Education
Only 52% of the children are education even though school is mandatory until the age 12. The most vulnerable children internally displaced children due to conflict, refugees and returnees from other countries.During ethnic conflicts numerous Burundian families had to flee their country take refuge in neighbor countries. Today a large number of them are coming back to Burundi with their children.
Although the government has made efforts to make education more accessible by removing school fees, the cost of books and uniforms are still huge barriers preventing many children from accessing free public schooling. Lack of well-trained educators and dilapidated school facilities have also proven to be factors that limited educational opportunity.
Child Labor
Close to one child in five is forced to work to support the needs of their families. These children may work in farms or industrial workplaces doing dangerous tasks. Young girls may work for other families as domestic servants and may be subject to sexual exploitation.
Child Abuse
Numerous Burundi children are victims of physical or sexual violence or abuse. Many cases are never reported because children fear reprisals and do not always have access to facilities allowing them to report the violence. Most of the time, children are victims of corporal punishment in their families or schools.
The widows in Burundi tend re-marry because culturally, a Burundi woman needs to be a wife or have a husband to be fully recognised and respected. Unfortunately, many children from the first marriage suffer as a result. The new husband does not treat them well. The children may be exploited for labour. In urban areas, they must do housework while their half-siblings go to school. They are denied schooling. In rural areas, they fare no better. They have to look after livestock, fetch water and firewood and, at night, may have to sleep outdoors. Unless other relatives intervene, many youngsters run away and live in the streets.
The lack of access to education has left many children vulnerable to instances of physical and domestic violence, psychological and sexual abuse and exploitation in their communities.
Child Trafficking
Child trafficking in Burundi is still a persistent unfortunate reality. Children who are trafficked within the country often come from rural areas. They are then exploited for domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation or forced prostitution. Research shows that the number of child prostitutes is rising, despite efforts from the government as well as other well-meaning non-government organizations to put a stop to it. Children are also trafficked to neighboring countries and subjected to forced labor.
Children detainees
One of the injustices perpetrated during the civil was the imprisonment of minor children even without a guilty verdict and sometimes even without a motive. If parents were imprisoned, children were thrown into prison as well. This has changed in recent years and no longer a common practice.
Lack of Identity
The huge number of unregistered births poses major problems for the children in Burundi. They cannot easily access public services. And because birth certificates are required to attend school, many unregistered children remain out of school, unable to enroll, and often become vulnerable to child labor.
SOCOODEIFE
