Mukenyezi,Terwa Iteka=Women, be Honored.

My name is Marie Jeanne Gacoreke (64 years old) a retired teacher in Bujumbura and founder of a women association named Centre Giriteka. My work and commitment is to help orphans and widows of war and sexually abused women, fight poverty and reintegrate refugees within Burundi and those from abroad. 

My children live in exile for fear of victimization as i denounce rapists and restore social justice to the victims of war and rape. To me, silence is not golden, and as a result i am always criticized, and even threatened. I live in Kinama, a poor quarter on the outskirts of Bujumbura, which has been destroyed because of war four times in the last ten years.

In 2005, further to my work, i was nominated Peace Woman with my 999 sisters by the UN in Geneva, and today i am a member of The Peace Women Across the Globe.

Although Burundi has a constitution which guaranties gender equality and has ratified international conventions and protocols, Gender Based Violence and discriminatory practices against women are prevalent. Violence against women is strongly linked to a larger context of gender inequality and the decades of social wars, the inferior status of women within the family and in Burundian society.

Our project proposes five components: 1. Awaring women in order to stand for their rights; 2. Positive masculinity in order to abate all the factors in the Burundian society which fuel negative masculinity; 2. Education and Women' socio - economic empowerment; 4. Justice; 5. Promoting women' participation.

The nationwide comprehensive sensitization and advocacy project aims at supporting and spearhead both men and women towards attitude change for gender equality. In every aspect of the project, men and women are equally engaged for the creation of inclusive spaces for the promotion of change.

According to the UNDP gender equality index, Burundi occupies only the 89th rank out of 187 countries and according to the Ministry of National Solidarity, Gender and Human Rights, sexual violence and those based on gender are a reality in Burundi, the data show that:

In 2015,  more than 15,348 were victims of GBV including 12,597 women and 2,751 m.

In 2014, over 14,026 victims and, in 2013, it was 19,530 victims.

Despite the absence of updated data in 2020, the persistence of this violence handicaps the socio-economic recovery which Burundi wants to achieve.  

Evidence from around the world indicates that VAWG seriously affects physical, sexual, mental health and the economy of every country and households which impends the achievement of SDGs. 

As for participation, the general average participation rate of Burundian women in decision-making bodies in Burundi "is only 17%", according to a study published in 2016 by AFRABU, noting however that the rate of enrollment of women in the last Burundian elections of 2020 was 52.45% (2,688,803) against 47.54% for men (2,437,548) out of a total of 5,126,551 registered voters.

Mukenyezi Terwa Iteka is a project whose actions envisage in the future, a Burundi where women and men, whatever their socio-economic situation, have the same rights and opportunities. 

Through this project, we offer to the victims/survivors a holistic assistance comprises of psychosocial, judicial and legal support and socio-economic reintegration (Medical care, Advocation, Micro - credit for VSLAs/AGRs, Educational and sensitization information). We also counseling separated families for their reunion. 

Further to GBV, we work on women's participation, especially in politics, in order to establish a real representativeness of political governing bodies and to allow women enjoy their full rights.

For this to be well done, we organize training and sensitization campaign on national and international instruments on promotion of gender and women's rights. Ideas and recommendations from these campaign are then put together and used in pledge reunions where do participate officials from the government and other stakeholders.

The project serves widows, children, displaced people, refugees, returnees, women and young girls victims of GBV,victims of natural disasters and wars in Burundi. 

Till today, we have served more than 19.200 women, young girls and children in Burundi and most of them have seen their lives changing. I am working with nationwide focal points who identify the cases of GBV and refer them to our Centre. For each case, an assessment/investigation is made to make sure we make the right decision on each case.  However, most of the victims, through a comprehensive psycho - social healing, come to a point where they start opens themselves and this is where they start expressing what are their wishes and dreams and our service is delivered according to the specific expressed need.

The beneficiaries of our project are the centre of our activities, so, if their involvement lacks, our initiatives are of to fail. This is where, we involve them from the first day we meet them to the process is closed. They are engaged in decision making, discrete denunciation process, legal, pledge and information providing.

The project seeks a Burundi where women and men live and enjoy equal opportunities, but this is not possible if both men, women, decision - makers, local and religious leaders are not involved in attitude change and abating all forms of norms impending gender equality. This is where, our project meets the selected dimension as they both focus on attitude change for a better life.

Since my youth, at school and in my neighborhood, I have always been against injustice. However, everything came together in 2000, a period of war that was catastrophic for all - worse, a time when the issue of women's rights was completely overlooked in Burundi. At that time, even gender-based violence was not recognized, because women had a worse status than today. 

A 76-year-old woman living in the Kinama was raped by armed people - I was informed, and decided to take her to the health center where doctors took care of her till she got physically healed. In 2001, two other women (a mother and her 12-year-old daughter) are raped by armed people in the Muramvya, we took them hospital to be treated and got physically healed. But none of these women dared to say who raped them, it was difficult, because the message was clear, Dare to Say Something, we will come back to Kill You.

I then decided to gather other women so that we form an official nonprofit organization which will be in charge of receiving and referring these women - so, we grew up till today, we have our psychologist, lawyer, health center etc.

My passion is justice. "My dream is to see rape victims finding a way out of shame and silence. They are speaking up."

My passion is justice. "My dream is to see rape victims finding a way out of shame and silence. They are speaking up."

Seeing women having their place, honor and dignity is the power that runs my brain and veins. 

I am not of a specialized profession, nor went to high class schools and universities. I am a child from the most poorer quarter of Bujumbura, the economic capital of Burundi. I am a teacher by profession and psychologist by training.

My life experience of injustice, especially in my childhood, opened me to many horizons. I saw many young women thrown in the bushes or beaten to death when they didn't carry a son, or got an unwanted pregnancy. I saw how parents preferred to send boys to schools rather than girls - i grew up in a society of discrimination with unacceptable social injustices.

All of this fueled my passion and commitment of reestablishment of social justice especially for women. I was able to participate also in many training, local, national and international on GBV and other related themes, which strengthened my capacity in leading such projects.

The fight against gender based violence and searching to increase the participation of women is a work full of obstacles and challenges, especially in a patriarchal society where the status of women is down.

One day, i organized a sensitization campaign, where the subject the Right to Heritage for women. I remember, that day, women were the first ones to mention that this cannot be in Burundian society, they said: "Women's heritage is in the home of where they are married". I was so shocked and saw my combat taking another face, as before i was thinking that GBV is mostly committed by men, i understood then that attitude and mentality change is a subject of focus on both men and women. 

Another challenge is impunity in Burundi, where rapists are captured and release after paying an amount of corruption to those who were supposed to render justice to the victims. As many of victims are not able to find lawyers services for themselves, i decided to find lawyers for them and paying related fees, this helped many victims getting repaired and justice done, and many rapists were sent back in jail.

I initiated the Centre Giriteka association of women which main objective is to defend the rights of women in Burundi. From 2001 to date, our association has its focal point in each of the 18 provinces of Burundi, who are in charge of identifying, targeting, denouncing and referring specific cases/victims to specific service.

I was able to lead the association till we got the legal status despite the period of war Burundi faced. We were able to help more than 19 200 victims, survivors from the 18 provinces of Burundi and our association were able to make coalition with The National Women Forum, The Réseau Femmes et Paix, the COCAFEM/GL and many more.

In 2005, i was nominated by the UN in Geneva as a peace woman, honored with other 999 in the world and now i a m a member of the Peace Women Across the Globe. In march 2020, i was honored by the Former President of the Republic of Burundi, Peter NKURUNZIZA for the work i am doing for women's conditions improvement.

This project uses an approach which named AW2 (Action of Women for Women). Within this approach, positive masculinity is at the bottom of the action and women. We understood that, seeking the improvment of women statuts without men is not possible, and women themselves have to be at the centre of the action. Its a circle way of doing things which have proven its value.

By addressing women as “whole individuals” with rights, and place them at the centre of their own development as participating change agents rather than victims, the program aims at contributing and complementing the existing efforts towards women’s and girls gender based violence prevention and participation in decision making bodies in Burundi. 

Actually, we are working with:

- 180 women and young girls representing each of the 18 provinces of Burundi as focal points;

- 10 psycho-social agents helping in counceling victims of GBV;

- Each week, we receive between 6 to 8 GBV victims who are referred to our centre for assistance which makes an average of 364 yearly assisted victims;

- Participation in decision making bodies, we work mainly with decision makers who are at the top point in terms of promoting and deciding the changes about women conditions. These are the different ministries in charge of gender promotion and protection.

Our main goals in the five coming years are:

- To achieve 50% of women participation in decision making bodies and in peace building;

- To reduce considerably the number of GBV in Burundi, at a point that we can move from 6-8 cases to 3-4 cases a week.

All other objectives come to contribute to the above mentionned goals.

- The involvement of local leaders in gender promotion still is low;

- The problem of corruption that plaguing some police men and agents of law;

- Lack of financial support from international donors as Burundi is under sanctions;

- Burundian society still is locked to itself and efforts to promote gender are subject to cultural opposition.

We hope, through this project that we will reach the targeted goals, as our project involves both women and men. The other factor of success is that from 2020, we want to sensitize even elected women so that they perform activities which will have positive impact on women. 

We are organizing sensitization campaign, which is a comprehensive program to cover all needed areas of intervention so as to achieve these goals.

We set up coalition with other local and international women's organization in order to unify forces and voice together the issue of women's concerns.

We have parterned up with:

The National Women's Forum

The Réseau Femmes et Paix of Burundi;

We are in contact with Femnet International;

The Peace Women Across the Globe

The Concertation des Collectifs des Associations Féminines dans la Région des Glands Lacs COCAFEM/GL

Our activities are not for profit, we serve women who are victims of gender based violence. Once a woman is raped, and when she comes to our office or center, we first analyse the gravity of her problem. Then, in a confidential consultation with the victim, we decide which service most best for her.

We offer:

- Injury healing;

- Legal assistance;

- Psycho - social assistance;

- Socio - economic reintegration for her, if deems needed.

In participation, we offer activities related to pleadge and sensitization, so as to make changes in terms of legislation and involvement of women in decision making bodies.

Our activities are based on donations and grants, we are not commercial or business makers. However, in term of supporting our beneficiaries for their own socio - economic sustainability, we support them with financial assistance in order to start own business and we support them with guidance, mentorship in order for their Revenue Generated Activities keep a sustainable growth and them change their life conditions.

Till today, our organization have received these funding whether through partnerships of direct to organization's account.

- CECI CAN :$ 1.030.000;

- PWAG : US $ 40.000

- Other private Donors: US $ 56.000

- Revenue generated by the our beneficiaries: US $ 32.000

To achieved our goals in the five coming years including 2020, we hope to raise at least US $1.000.000.

This amount is supposed to be a grant, and will not be of making profit or business purposes. It is an amount that our organization envision should help in term of supporting the improvement of women's statute in Burundi in terms of participation and gender based violence prevention. This amount should will help also in starting Revenue Generated activities for our victims who wish to see their live conditions changing.

Our financial estimation for 2020 is US $ 65.000

I am applying to this fund as our realization and project match the Prize goals. Further to this, we encounter many challenges that mainly are related to funding. Whater the problems are, if we don't get funding for our cause, it will still being hard to achieve the targeted goals.

I and our organization need funding to achieve our goals - see the prevision for the coming five years, but this cannot be achieved also without advice, guidance from most experimented organization such as yours. 

In order our action to best be known, we need widest visibility, this is possible through these technical partnerships using their own networks.

Solde MIT - Technical and financial support;

UN Women - technical, pledge and financial support;

African Women and Development Fund - Technical, pledge and financial support;

W4 - Funds mobilization;

Globalgiving - Funds mobilization;

Startupxs - Funds mobilization;

FUNUAP - Technical, pledge and financial support.