2026: Going Deeper
As we step into 2026, we’re full of gratitude and expectation for what God is doing in Burundi. We’re excited—and ready—to face the challenges ahead as the Gihanga community continues moving toward greater thriving. We’re focused this year on going deeper relationally while we continue towards the development success of this community. Here’s a look…
Food and Water ☑️
Once again we come to you with stories of exciting victories and breakthroughs in the community of Gihanga. We’ve waited and prayed for so long, and now we’re finally seeing some beautiful and life-changing results! The work is far from over, but we must celebrate these successes as they come! Buckle up while we break…
Big Changes!
We used to drive the one-hour journey back to Bujumbura from Gihanga in silence, with the exception of a few sighs and weepy sniffs. Our hearts were broken over the swollen bellies and dripping noses of hungry and sick children. It was devastating to walk by the sticks-and-rubbish huts falling over in the rain. We…
From Rubbish to Refuge
We are happy to unveil the first finished home of our housing project! Zira, a widow and the village midwife, was elected by the village committee to be the first in line to exchange her mud and rubbish shack for a home that will be a safe refuge for her family for decades to come…
An Update on Barriers and Breakthroughs!
Thank you all for your abundant patience as it has been a little bit since we had an update for you. We’d like to take this post as an opportunity to run through what is going on with Yada at the moment – updates on the Christmas celebrations from December, our progress with the well,…
A Costly Offering
The Christmas season is particularly special for YADA this year, as it marks our ten year anniversary 🎉 We have some amazing plans in store this Christmas, which we’re excited to invite you into below (don’t miss it!), but this moment beckons a holy pause of reflection on all God has done in the last…
More Than Materials
It’s Back-to-School time once again! Just like where this letter might find you, children in Burundi spent the last few weeks excitedly getting ready to return to their studies. In this beautiful country we love, the return to school demands much of the students and their families in an area where food is a scarce…
One Thing After The Next
It is difficult to put into words the current situation in Burundi. As the world’s second poorest country, disaster is an ever-familiar scenario, and a quick Google search on any given day will reveal innumerable challenges this country constantly faces. Yet, in the last year and increasingly in recent weeks, the situation in Burundi has become so grim that it’s hard…
Laying a Foundation
On Tuesday, our community members, our YADA team, and a few local government officials all joined together to pick up heavy stones for the foundation of our new community center in Kagwema, Gihanga. These rough, sedimentary boulders, hewn from Burundi’s beautiful and lush landscape, have seen so much hardship. They’ve been witnesses to decades of…
Christmas Joy
Our 20 Day Campaign and the Results If you were following us at all on social media this past month, you hopefully heard all about Yada through our “20 Days To Know Yada” campaign. We had SO much fun with it, and it was a joy to introduce you to our team, our communities, and our dreams…
Dignity Not Disgust
Each year on May 28th, Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed to highlight good menstrual hygiene practices and to raise awareness about the importance of access to products. Together with other organisations YADA is working hard to give advice and support to women and girls on this taboo subject. The majority of girls miss school every month because they don’t have…
Let There Be Light
Electricity is something I took for granted in my childhood. We had a few blackouts which made for great excitement that we could miss school for the day but nothing more. In BURUNDI, having little or no electricity is the norm for most people. Recently a few of the teenage children in YADA asked if they could stay…
Seedlings
“That’s it, that’s what we need In YADA” exclaimed Ezechiel on our way to work one morning. I couldn’t see what he was pointing at, all I could see was a field with a grass shack. “ITUTA, ITUTA that’s what we need”, he continued. I know my dear husband well enough to not ask lots of…
Live!
Hallelujah, we are so excited to finally launch our new website! This helps give YADA further credibility and another platform to share all the amazing work that’s happening. We are deeply thankful to our good friend, Carley Serwat, for her hard work and dedication to producing a quality website with sensitivity and care. Please visit…
Oink Oink
At a regular community meeting in December 2021 people asked if YADA would help them buy pigs as a way of helping their families. It is so good when ideas come for the families because they have already thought through the process and automatically take more ownership and responsibility. We told the community we would…
Training and Dancing
A recurring request from many of the women at YADA is for a loan to start a small business (such as selling tomatoes, charcoal, vegetables). So many organisations give out these loans without any training or accountability and the majority of these small business fail. In February Ezechiel invited all of those seeking a loan…
Family
What a wonderful Christmas celebration we had at YADA this year. Our 8th Christmas together. It was such a joy to share food together, watch the children perform their dances that they had been practicing and then send every family home with food packages for three days. What a great God we serve! (Top left…
Truly He Has Listened
What a challenging, exciting and encouraging few months we have had. We have so much to share with you and want to begin by thanking you for all your love, prayers and support for the ministry. We were so thankful to take our staff team on retreat over the summer (pictures above) where we reflected…
Not Abandoned
When it comes to writing updates, the temptation is to share all the positives because it makes for better reading….right? However, I know life has been really tough for most of the world over the last year, and so I thought I would share about the hard stuff here and the challenges we have faced.…
Change
Another big change has come to YADA – we have a new teacher, Emelyne. She is a great asset to the team and the kids love her. All of the children we serve attend various government schools which she visits every Friday. From visiting the schools and home visits she identified that as well as…
A Life Saved
She fell through the compound gate and collapsed on the ground. It had taken her last bit of strength to reach our offices. The other children screamed and our teacher Vedaste came running. He scooped her up and although apprehensive to begin with (if she died in his arms the community would hold him responsible)…
Covid Impacts Nyarumanga
“If this COVID19 comes here Mama Daniel it will finish us all”. These are the words of the community leaders to me as we met to inform and educate the community on the recent virus that has impacted the entire world. With tears threatening to spill over all i could do was nod my head.…
Christmas Morning
September at YADA reminds me of a Christmas morning in the first world. Children walk in with trepidation, scouring the room, eyes full of questions, not sure whether to smile or not. Whispering to each other on the mat, ‘do you think we are going back?”, “have we got new bags?”, “do you see any…