BUJUMBURA August 18th (ABP) – The Burundi Red Cross, Bujumbura province branch, organized, at its office of Gatumba, a friendship coffee for partners from the administration, defense and security corps and decentralized services, to strengthen the bonds of friendship and partnership, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In his opening remarks, the chief of staff in the office of the governor of Bujumbura M. Dieudonné Bizimana, thanked the Red Cross which found this opportunity to bring together its partners in order to discuss its interventions in the provinces. He invited the participants to follow the presentations to be made and to think about how to improve the partnership for the benefit of the people.
He indicated that the activities of the red cross are visible on the field, citing its interventions during the floods of Gatumba with the spraying of households, the water supply of the displaced, the construction of tarpaulins for the latter, the participation next to the administration in relief to victims of landslides in the various communes, and others.
The executive secretary of the Burundi Red Cross branch indicated that their intervention focused on five areas, namely community health; environmental resilience; protection; water-hygiene and sanitation, and social assistance. He praised the good collaboration with the administration.
Pasteur Nduwimana, in charge of publicizing the Red Cross movement, indicated that the Burundi Red Cross is a humanitarian organization, auxiliary to the Burundian State in reducing the suffering of the people. As some think, the Red Cross of Burundi is not a non-governmental organization (NGO), in its interventions, it relies on its volunteers and members and currently has 680,000 members in the village units distributed throughout the country. It works with budget and without budget, he added. He regretted that the administrators forget the volunteers of the red cross in the implementation of works of general interest in the country while it is a sure, available and cheaper workforce. He called on them to use it. He informed them that in other countries the Red Cross lives from the budget allocated to it by the State and in Burundi the related law is in Parliament, adding that the Red Cross has a framework partnership agreement with the various ministries of the Burundi government.
The permanent secretary of Mubimbi commune expressed the wish that his commune be added to the intervention zone of the Red Cross given the landslides on the Muzazi river which requires intervention to stabilize its banks.