Samira’s Story: Early Childhood Education in Burundi

Connie Green,
Professor Emerita, Appalachian State University

My name is Samira. I am 6 years old and I live in Butanuka, Burundi. Many months ago, I was very sick and couldn't walk as I wanted. My mom brought me and my younger sister to the feeding center for porridge. I had never tasted the sugared porridge before in my life. At home, we eat Ugali (made from cassava flour) and beans every night. After coming many times to the feeding program, my condition changed. Today I am not a malnourished girl; I am a strong girl. At the end of February 2020, Dreaming for Change started a preschool with 28 children and I am one of them. I am glad I met friends like Corine, Jessica, and Lola. We come four times a week and I have learned how to count, draw, sing songs, and listen to stories. (As told by Samira and her mother.)

Samira is fortunate to live near a feeding center; her mother could bring her and three younger children there to be checked by a nurse to determine their nutritional status. Two older children in the family attend public schools. Samira’s father works in a nearby city, returning home every month or two. Samira’s mother struggles to feed her six children on the dollar or two a day she is able to earn working odd jobs, such as planting and harvesting rice.

In 2018, Janvier Manirakiza and I developed a nutrition program for young children in Burundi, where 56% of children, ages 6-59 months, suffer from chronic malnutrition. The nutrition program provides young children and pre- and postnatal women with a cup of fortified porridge three times a week to supplement their diets. In 2020, I was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of State to start a preschool. The resulting Butanuka Community Preschool is the first early childhood program in the rural Mpanda Commune in the province of Bubanza, Burundi.

The preschool was the next step for Dreaming for Change, a grassroots organization serving vulnerable women and children. We wanted to provide an educational boost for young children in a rural community in one of the poorest places on earth—a country with only a handful of libraries and bookstores, where textbooks are so scarce that sometimes four or five children must share one book. Public primary education serves children from age 7 to 12, in schools that often lack electricity, water, or functional bathrooms. Children under 7 typically stay home, help their mothers with chores, or watch even younger siblings.

I took note of Samira the first day I taught in our new preschool. She was the tallest child, barefoot and wearing a loose gray dress with an unraveled hem. Her eyes were filled with wonder, yet a little frightened and unsure. Her hairless head was covered in round marks, possibly from ringworms or fungus. When I greeted Samira with a smile, she stared in response. As I slowly sang, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” with Claudine, the assistant teacher, translating into Kirundi (the local language), Samira watched my movements carefully and seriously.

The first book I read aloud to the children was Old Mikamba Had a Farm. It was also the first book most of the children had ever heard. The first two times I sang “e-i-e-i-o” as a solo; by the third time, Janvier (who translated) and I encouraged the children to sing along. By the final recitation, I could see Samina’s lips moving.

I wondered how much the children understood of the pictures and words in books. Several of the books I brought with me depicted giraffes, baboons, and other African animals, yet Janvier struggled with translating, calling on others in the room to assist him. He later told me that if an animal doesn’t live in Burundi, there is no Kirundi word to represent it. Instead, he translated some animal names into French, the other official language in Burundi.

After the story, we directed the children to benches (the only furniture in the room) where adults had placed colored popsicle sticks. I asked the children to hold up different colors, then showed them how to create shapes with the sticks. Samira watched as the children around her responded and soon made the shapes herself. It seemed that many of the children were not familiar with the concept of color. I learned that the Kirundi language does not have straightforward words for colors. Burundians communicate colors by comparing to something familiar; for example, a blue pen might be described as a pen that resembles the sky. Janvier and Claudine translated into French and I followed their lead.

As Claudine collected the sticks, I demonstrated making marks on paper. The children probably drew with sticks or rocks in the dirt around their homes, but it is unlikely that they had prior experience drawing with crayons or markers. Some children made random scribbles, but many made small repetitive marks, often circular, following universal stages of artistic development.

I led a few more movement songs as the other adults in the room scurried to deliver the children’s snacks (bananas and sweetened bread). I had never experienced a preschool snack time that was silent, but not a sound was heard while the children ate all of their food. I later learned that mealtimes are typically silent in Burundian homes. Recovering from malnutrition, Samira and the others have known true hunger and savor whatever is available to them.

A good-bye song concluded our first morning together. The mothers who had been watching through openings in the palm spine walls of the classroom stepped inside to gather their children. They smiled when they saw the drawings the children were bringing home. A few mothers turned to shake my hand and smile. Several children around age 8 or 9 came to pick up their brothers and sisters. Two of these children carried toddlers tied to their backs with long strips of cloth. Samira was among the children who simply walked away toward the road. When I asked Janvier if someone would come for these children, he smiled and told me they knew where to go.

Later in the week, the children made music with empty water bottles containing pebbles and sand. They tossed beanbags from hand-to-hand and into a big pan. They circled the room gently waving their arms like wings to a song about birds. They chased bubbles and blew their own bubbles through straws in pans of soapy water. On the last day, they used plastic droppers to sprinkle diluted food coloring onto coffee filters and watched the colors spread. We transformed the colorful filters into beautiful butterflies.

Samira “graduated” from preschool in May 2020 and is enrolled in 1st grade in primary school. Her 5-year-old sister now attends the preschool program and we are confident that the two younger siblings will also attend.

With an additional grant, early childhood educators from North Carolina have provided virtual teacher training to the high school graduates hired as preschool teachers in Butanuka. We believe that the early childhood curriculum the teachers implement will provide a strong foundation for the children, sustain their success throughout school, and one day lift them out of poverty.

Reference
Isadora, R. (2013). Old Mikamba had a farm. Nancy Paulsen Books.