"At home with us" - all children get help

Giving people who are marginalised due to HIV/Aids or traumatised by decades of civil war new hope and helping them in a very practical way was the goal of Father and doctor Dr Ludwig Peschen when he founded the local non-governmental organisation "Nouvelle Espérance" ("New Hope") in Bujumbura in 1993. In the past, most of the children and young people came to the capital Bujumbura to save their lives during the civil war. Today, they come because their parents have died of AIDS or other diseases and they live alone on the streets. The organisation "Nouvelle Espérance" tries to do everything so that they do not have to live on the streets forever.

In addition to a wide range of services for adults in the areas of medical, psychological and social care as well as education and the initiation of income-generating measures, Nouvelle Espérance is committed to the constantly increasing number of AIDS and war orphans and needy children in difficult circumstances. Children are specifically supported in the following areas:

• Psychological and social support
• legal support
• Reintegration into the family
• Support for school education
• a vocational training
• economic support
• medical care

In the small shelter "Imuhira i waҫu" (at our house) there is a residential group for young people with disabilities. They are looked after by volunteers and run their small "business" themselves. There is a rice field and a garden where the residents grow their own food. Children with physical and mental disabilities can also be cared for here during the day.