School supported entirely by charitable donations through ACTS (African Christian Teaching Service)
We are reaching the end of another school year at Herridge Technical School Burundi and looking back over the year it has been a mixture of good news and ever developing crises due to the world situation, difficult relationships with neighbouring countries, and changing weather patterns.
Against this background the school has continued to maintain high academic standards and in the end of year national exams in July 2023 there was a 100% pass rate with several students gaining very high marks, enough to get a university place if funding can be secured. H.T.S has been teaching 95 students – 63 girls and 32 boys ranging in age from 15 to 29 years. Expectations are high for their end of year exam results.
Two new members of staff were appointed in September and thankfully they have been able to take on more responsibility than was originally expected. All staff were given a 10% pay rise at the beginning of the school year to help with increasing inflation. At the time this enabled them to pay rent, bills, food and their own children’s school fees, but with recent inflation, they find their wages do not even cover their rent. A situation which will have to be tackled quickly.
In addition to the core curriculum, there are now more extra-curricular activities such as clubs conducted in French (the main European language in Burundi), traditional music, and sports that can be played on the school basketball court. This court is the envy of the area.
Students arrange many events around worship and praise. The Sunday worship service is very popular and draws at least 200 people from the local area.
The other very popular event is the end of year celebration, again organised by the students. It is an opportunity for former students to share their testimonies of how God is working in their lives after H.T.S. A huge encouragement to the leavers.
With food being scarce in the country, recent activity is growing more crops in the school grounds. To the existing banana and avocado trees, they have added mango trees and this year the P.E curriculum has included establishing plots of cassava, sweet potatoes, maize, tomatoes and peas – all nutritional and very good exercise. Earlier this year the President of Burundi decreed that everyone, institutions in particular, were to keep rabbits. In March the school had 25. How many now?
Government pressure to increase the school’s capacity continues. In 2022 plans were drawn up to build 2 dormitories for students from further afield. The cost was put at £200,000. Fund raising started and was encouraging. Unfortunately, individual giving stalled in 2023, and because of the economic situation in Burundi, funding from local sources dried up. It seemed assistance would be needed to approach bigger organisations for help. This did not bring any results, so by Christmas discouragement and frustration had set in, and the newsletter read “Realistically raising £200,000 is going to take a few years of fund raising or a miracle” Well a few weeks ago the miracle happened, and ACTS received a cheque from a U.K friend, large enough to start building one dormitory. This allowed bricks to be ordered and work should begin in June. We still can’t quite believe it.
If only there was such good news from the rest of Burundi. For the majority of the population life is unbelievably bleak. The Burundian franc has fallen against the dollar and the pound, and the exchange rates can change 3 times a day. Burundi is almost economically bankrupt and anyone who has money is choosing to leave the country for Canada, Belgium etc. Food is so expensive that many are starving and services such as water and electricity are turned off without warning for several days at a time. Fuel has been in short supply for 2years thus making everything more expensive.
We therefore ask you to pray, that the funds available to the school can keep it operating at its present level, so that the students succeed in their education, and that the planned progress towards the dormitory construction can continue.
There is more information about HTS on the Missions notice board by the main door of the church.