I am Bill Samuel. I live in Germantown, Maryland, USA. I am an individual supporter of Voice of Hope Burundi/Grand-Lacs, which I learned about through Quaker channels, and am seeking to help it raise more funds for its projects. Voice of Hope is a Quaker non-profit organization registered in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is managed by young Congolese and Burundian Quakers, all volunteers and university graduates in various fields.
Voice of Hope supports vulnerable orphaned children, vulnerable widowed women who are victims of violence, and young Ugandan refugees. It also seeks to address humanitarian emergencies in our region. Voice of Hope was created to respond to the problems in the daily lives of local communities trying to develop after several decades of violence, including wars, massacres, and killings of individuals. The consequences of these include an increasing number of vulnerable orphaned children, an increasing number of vulnerable widowed women, the use of young people as troublemakers in the region, and the displacement of refugees in the region. Voice of Hope Burundi/Grand-Lacs currently has three ongoing projects:
- The schooling of 30 vulnerable orphaned children, 5 of whom are at university, 13 in secondary school, and 12 in primary school. Voice of Hope is raising funds to meet the general needs of these children, but their schooling is our first priority.
- Baho Project. Baho means “be there” in the local Bantu/Burundian language. It empowers vulnerable widowed women who are victims of violence. We provide them with non-refundable microcredit to help them meet the basic needs of their families.
- Voice of Hope also provides total support to seven young LGBT Ugandan refugees who were expelled from Uganda and who have been under VOH's care for two years.
The overall goal of this fundraising appeal is to help Voice of Hope meet the needs of all these families who are torn apart and desperately seeking help. You can contribute specifically to one of the ongoing projects or to the work in general. The education project costs $25,000 a year at the university level, $18,200 a year at the secondary school level, and $13,200 a year at the primary school level. The Baho project costs $16,000 a year to support 60 vulnerable widowed women who are victims of violence. Taking care of the seven young Ugandan refugees costs $1,250 a month for a total of $15,000 a year.
Voice of Hope has some support from British Quakers, including the Mid Essex Area Meeting and Simmons grants. In the USA, the Woven Faith Community provides some support for the young Ugandan refugees. The support from these sources is not nearly enough to support all the VOH projects. In the UK, Quakers are setting up a UK-registered charity to receive donations from those in the UK. In the USA, we do not have institutional support outside that of the small Woven Faith Community.
Organizer
Bill Samuel
Organizer
Germantown, MD