Gitega January 4th (ABP) – The empowerment of Burundian women would be successful if ill-intentioned men did not slow down their initiatives. These are the words of Mrs. Béate Ndayikengurukiye, a hairdresser and, at the same time, butcher, from the commune of Giheta, in the province of Gitega (center of the country).
She told a check by ABP with regret that when she took up the job of butchering pigs, men from her locality joined forces to convince her husband to prevent her from doing so.
“They told him that I constitute a public danger”, even going so far as to say that I will cut her throat during the night, she added. She is delighted that her husband has resisted the intimidation, because he saw my financial contribution in the family, she explains.
Mrs. Béate Ndayikengurukiye testified with a smile on her lips that per month, she manages to earn nearly one hundred thousand francs for the only service of toasting pork (pig meat).
As for the hairdressing salon, she added that she also earns much. Thanks to her entrepreneurship, she was able to buy two solar panels, one to light the family home, and the other to light the hairdressing salon.
To encourage her, the NGO Care International gave her a hairdressing helmet, which allows her to make her business profitable, as she told the check by ABP.
She asked men to cut short with mentalities of treating women as inferior. Rather, they must let them flourish, release their energies and develop their talents, Mrs. Ndayikengurukiye recommended, while concluding that the woman is capable, on an equal footing (on equal terms) with the man. In this way, the development of the country will depend on it, she insisted.