CREATION OF JOBS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

THE CONTEXT OF YOUR INITIATIVE

Disabled people face two major difficulties: the first one is that of their disability and the second of these is poverty. Poverty pushes these people towards begging, especially in urban and semi-urban areas where they go to seek refuge. AIPH (Support for Initiatives for People with Disabilities) is convinced that working is better than begging and thus we try to help find solutions to overcome the poverty affecting disabled people by implementing income generating activities (we currently run sewing and pig/goat farming activities and will soon start fish farming).

THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT AS PART OF YOUR INITIATIVE

– Pig farming by 3 pre-cooperative groups made up of 25 people each: AIPH Umwizero and AIPH Imbere Ni Heza in central Bujumbura and AIPH Hakoramunda in Gihungwe, Bubanza province, on AIPH property.

– We run a high-quality sewing workshop with women and young girls/young mothers. This workshop focuses on African-style women’s clothing, this is a difficult type of sewing to master and people from outside of the group come asking us if they can perfect their techniques in our workshop.

WHO IS INVOLVED FROM OUR GROUP?

– In terms of our farming activities the 75 people in the 3 pre-cooperative groups are actively involved in ensuring the development of their activities. The plan is that when groups are made in the future we will establish true cooperatives with all the associated aspects, notably including offering loans to disabled people (this is why we currently call them ‘pre-cooperative groups’).

– For our sewing workshop 3 people work on this initiative and we have, on average, 15 people benefitting from these services.

– In terms of our advocacy work the board and the 6-person supervisory committee handle the daily monitoring and implementation of AIPH’s activities.

WHICH PARTNERS ARE YOU WORKING WITH ON THIS INITIATIVE?

FUTURE PROSPECTS

75 people can now see a ray of hope of the horizon – they hope to soon become financially independent. We must also remember that these activities provide visibility to disabled people who were, until quite recently, seen as cursed.

Four people have already stopped begging and have become independent by developing their own income generating activities: one of them exports beer to Congo and three other young girls/mothers sew at home despite the low income gained from this work. This process towards gaining independence is now underway with other people.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD ANY INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR INITIATIVE?

WHAT ARE YOUR PROSPECTS?

With the financing from the Emmaus Chalon sur Saône friends committee 3 pre-cooperative groups were launched and a 40m x 25m plot of land was bought, helping us to extend our activities.

However we predict we will soon have 8 more groups (one more in central Bujumbura, one in Rumonge province, two in Ngozi, one in Muyinga, one in Gitega, one in Cankuzo (the poorest province in the country) and in the long term we will have more still.