Key points:
- Founded in 2022, the church school is the only secondary school in the Rubirizi region, home to around 21,000 people.
- The technical school, named in memory of United Methodist Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa, suffered extensive damage due to strong winds and rain.
- 13 students were injured and had to be hospitalized for medical treatment.
A United Methodist high school suffered extensive damage during recent torrential rains and heavy wind that blew the roofs off of two buildings. Thirteen students were injured in the storm.
The frames and walls of five classrooms at the Lycée Technique Mgr. Jean Alfred Ndoricimpa technical school also were blown away, along with the toilets. In the western part of Burundi, the rains caused injuries and extensive material damage.
The school is located around 13 kilometers from the city of Bujumbura in Rubirizi and 400 meters from Route Nationale 9, in the north of Burundi’s economic capital.
Founded in 2022 by The United Methodist Church in the Burundi Conference, the school houses two sections: electromechanics and works supervision. It is the only secondary school in the Rubirizi region, home to some 21,000 people.
The high school is named in memory of United Methodist Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa, who led the denomination’s East Africa Conference. He died in 2005.
Burundi currently is part of the East Africa Episcopal Area, which includes the provisional conferences of Kenya/Ethiopia, Uganda/South Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda.
In 2025, the Burundi Annual Conference will become an episcopal region and part of the new East Africa Central Conference.
According to school headmaster Désiré Nirera, the rain began on Oct. 30, with a violent wind that swept away the roofs, frames and walls of the technical school’s buildings.
“We did an inventory to assess the damage,” he said. “It’s very huge for us. All the roofs have been blown away and even the frames. The benches/desks (were) broken. The walls, too, are on the ground.”
The 13 injured students were taken to the emergency hospital for treatment and their conditions are improving, Nirera said. “The school is committed to paying for the health care of the injured students, even though it has meager means.”
Nirera said the damage varied from building to building.
“The school is not fully functioning; in some classes, pupils are not studying, as two buildings are completely destroyed,” he said. “For the moment, pupils are continuing classes, some in the teachers’ lounge, others in the church, where we were able to separate the church into two parts, and another class in the pastor’s office.”
The district superintendent of Bujumbura, the Rev. Valentine Cimpaye, said that the school was of the utmost importance in the region.
With no secondary school in the locality, she said, “the church took the initiative to reinforce the government so that pupils could find a place where they could continue their studies close to their homes.”
Cimpaye said that the repair costs are estimated at 472,000,000 Burundian Francs, or around $163,000 USD.
Students and parents are worried about the conditions of the school.
“After this bad weather, we, members of the community, are disappointed not to have a place where our children can study better,” said Karorero Rubin, whose children attend the Lycée.
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Ninteretse Jovanie, a student in the electromechanical class, said that the destruction of the school would delay the progress of programs, suspend classes, traumatize students and cause girls to miss school due to the lack of toilets and menstrual management facilities.
Cimpaye said that the long-term consequences are numerous if the school is not rehabilitated.
Urgently, the school needs work benches, teachers’ guides, textbooks, computers, desks and mechanical and electrical equipment destroyed in the collapse of the walls, Cimpaye said.
“The type of aid to be carried out in the short term is to bring tents, sheet metal and tubes to enable pupils to study while waiting for the reconstruction of the destroyed buildings,” she added.
Nirera said that in the long term, the school would need bricks, cement, rebar, gravel, sand and other building materials to rebuild.
To prevent this kind of disaster in the future, Cimpaye said that the church has taken steps to plant trees around the school and channel rainwater.
In addition to the United Methodist school, several other infrastructures were damaged in the storms. Japhet Nshimirimana, chief of the Rubirizi Hill, reported that houses, churches, the market and other schools were affected.
“The disaster victims, who are currently without assistance, are asking anyone of good faith to help them,” Nshimirimana said.
Cimpaye agreed that more assistance will be needed.
“We are seeking help from the administrative authorities, the Ministry of Solidarity and partners of The United Methodist Church to rebuild and repair the buildings of the Lycée Technique,” she said. “We thank God, who saved the pupils and teachers who were in class that day.”
Ndayisenga is a communicator for the Burundi Conference.
UM News contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more news from The United Methodist Church, subscribe to the free Daily Digest or Weekly Digest.
