Plant With Purpose Burundi Makes National News!

We have two very exciting bits of news for Plant With Plant With Purpose-Burundi! First, last week our program was recognized on Burundi's National TV news as one of the five best non-governmental organizations by the Ministry of Agriculture in the Rutana province. We aren't just talking about a pat on the back here; Plant With Purpose Burundi's work of bringing communities together and creating lasting change was being mentioned next to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN)! The program host visited one of our cassava fields and interviewed Emmanuel, our staff agronomist, about the great progress seen so far with that project. Exposure like this builds on the already positive reputation of Plant With Purpose's newest program, and helps us to be recognized on a national scale.

The exposure on television opened up to another incredible media opportunity a few days later. Our Burundi program received a 30-minute segment on a leading Burundian radio station called Radio Insanganiro about the impact of our activities working with communities in the region of Rutana. The reason this is also so significant is that Radio Insanganiro is based in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, and focuses their broadcasts on conflict resolution. Their message reaches across the war torn country of Burundi and also extends into eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and some Western parts of Tanzania. Some of their objectives are to:

• Disseminate objective and balanced information
• Promote dialogue, peace and reconciliation through its news, programs, microprograms, magazines and press releases
• Reconcile conflicting societies, starting from Burundi, and then between Burundian, Rwandan, Congolese and Tanzanian communities
• Promote respect of human rights, particularly for vulnerable groups like women, children displaced people and returnees
• Promote freedom of the press
• Promote freedom of expression and positive values

A major congratulations to our Burundi country director, Lazare, and his four other staff members who have taken off running with Plant With Purpose's work in Burundi!

For a little more background on our program in Burundi, please visit our blog from last Friday.