Pangea Member, Darrell Johnson Shares Burundi Experiences with Africa Pod

Pangea member, Darrell Johnson spent 8 weeks this summer working with Village Healthworks in Burundi. Darrell met founder, Deogratias (“Deo”) Niyizokiza when hespoke at Pangea’s 10th Anniversary celebration last fall. Darrell was invited by Deo to help with operational and financial planning for the building of a new Women’s Health Pavilion in Kigutu to address high maternal mortalities. Darrell shared his experiences recently with the Africa pod, as they continue to explore grantmakingopportunities in Burundi.Here’s some things he shared that evening amongst stories and slides. Pictured right: Darrell working with Village Healthworks Budget Manager

Burundi is a small country of about 10 million inhabitants in Central East Africa with a complex and dynamic history. For several decades until the end of World War I, it was a German colony and was known as Urundi. The end of the War resulted in Germany losing this colony with Belgium being the beneficiary. In 1959, Urundi was divided into two separate countries, Rwanda and Burundi. Three years later, Burundi gained its independence. Independence did not lead to peace and prosperity and tribal antagonisms emerged leading to two periods of genocide, first in the early 1970’s and again in the 1990’s, resulting in approximately 250,000 deaths in each period. When the last civil war ended in 2005 it left its population thoroughly traumatized and in extreme poverty.

Deogratias (“Deo”) Niyizonkiza was a third year medical student in the early 1990’s and was a member of a tribe that was the primary victim of the genocide. With the help of friends, he was evacuated to New York and arrived with very little money and speaking only French and Kirundi, (Burundi local language). In spite of this, a few years later, he had acquired two Bachelors Degrees from Columbia University, a Masters in Public Health from Harvard, and was a student at Dartmouth Medical School. By any measure, Deo is a remarkable human being. Instead of staying in the US and developing a career as a physician, he elected to return to his home, Kigutu in southern Burundi, and open a clinic to meet the many medical needs there. Village Health Works was formed, and with the help of the villagers, Deo built the clinic, which was followed by an agricultural program to address malnutrition, and a school.

Today, the villagers meet every Friday to level, by hand, the land where the Women’s Health Pavilion will be built, hopefully beginning next year, to address a high maternal mortality rate. Darrell was struck by the perseverance and drive of the people and enjoyed hearing them sing as they worked on the land, which he could hear clearly from his vantage point while working on financial planning and improving accounting systems.

Darrell also introduced Days for Girls sanitary pads, which are being considered for widespread distribution to local girls to help them stay in school. He also helped introduce a model chicken coop to expand the consumption of eggs and to further address malnutrition. Darrell certainly inspired the Africa pod with all he was able to accomplish in just 8 weeks!

“It was a fabulous experience and one that I hope Pangea will consider supporting in the future!”     Darrell Johnson