BAHO NAWE

Naze Bruce grew up on the streets after losing his parents to HIV/AIDS. Most of his childhood was spent as a street kid, begging to survive until his teenage years, when he was taken in by a family, that also kept him in school and provided him with better, safer life condition. He then vouched to study sociology and trained as a child protection officer. His aim is to prevent children ending up on the street as beggars, by identifying very vulnerable families and providing them with support, by keeping their children in school, providing them with a safe environment to grow up in (through fostering), while those children's families are being assisted into learning skills, to be able to provide for their children. All through fostering, the children keep in touch with their families. Bruce Neza founded BAHO NAWE in April 2024, all members but one are volunteers. They have one paid staff member. Naze Bruce has worked for Unicef on humanitarian projects (victimes of floods in 2018), works with communities initiatives on child protection as project leader for World Relief. His organisation BAHO NAWE primary activities is to provide long term foster care for children living in abject poverty, at risk of ending on street as beggars (and all the risks that entails) to provide for themselves and their families (a common occurrence i Bujumbura). The children can then be kept in school, live safely and be provided with basic needs and normal family framework. Parents keep in touch with their children, and are coach by BAHO NAWE about safe and early childhood development, and child protection values and principles. BAHO NAWE registration as a NGO is pending, but has been allowed to work as such organisation in the meantime. Baho has formed af partnership with DBD who has been one of the funders. Baho together with DBD has designed af projekt to help victims of floods in Gatumba, which is a rapid response humanitarian work over a period of 6 months.