About Us

About

Shekinah Center

Shekinah Centre started operating in 2011 as an Education Program with 40 pupils and currently is schooling 265 children. The organization was born from Micheline Barandereka’s vision of bridging the lack of quality education in rural areas.

Shekinah Centre is a nonprofit organization approved under the Law of Burundi. The organization is headquartered in the countryside of Burundi, in the commune of Rusaka within the Province of Mwaro.

A great number of children in Burundi, including in Mwaro, come from extremely poor families. The rapid population growth being one of the root causes of it, extreme poverty often becomes a major obstacle that prevents children from having access to education. Given the difficulty of financially impaired households to send their kids to school, Shekinah Centre has developed a methodology that is adapted to poor rural areas. Shekinah Centre provides education to rural children using a holistic and integrated approach centered on access to quality education, healthcare and clean water as well as family economic empowerment. This rounded approach enables to synergize multiple sectors in order to build a foundation for sustainable social development. This approach is supported by an important collaboration with the community whereby parents of the students participate in the educational process of their children.

Shekinah Centre’s activities are carried out in the same location and will be extended to other areas as the organization grows.

Micheline Barandereka
Founder & CEO

Students

Have access to quality education

Families

Participate in the farming project

Women

Have access to health care

Households

Have access to clean water

Goats

Distributed for the economic empowerment of families.

Testimonials

“The association Twiteho Umukenyezi Yibugenze, initiated by Shekinah Center, has given our families so many benefits. The association has gifted us a goat to help us to care for ourselves and our household. We have already experienced the benefits of owning the goats. We get manure for our plantations. There is no other association like this one in Mwaro”.

Suzanne

“I see great benefits of this kitchen garden, I can get vegetable to feed my family and I also get other types of seeds to add on to it. I used to hear about the kitchen garden, but I never thought I would have my own. I am very thankful to the association team members that follow up on us and our gardens. This is a good initiative that we would like to see grow and help other grow”.

Marianne

“Having this water fountain here in Mahwane is great progress for people living on the surroundings hills as they didn’t have access to potable water. We no longer have to go to the river to fetch water. Clean water is a rare commodity for most people, which is why we are grateful that someone has thought of building such a project near us”.

Egide

We were trained on nutrition , how to build and maintain a kitchen garden, sexual health and family planning which resulted on the improvement of our family’s life especially on the health of our children because the way we feed them. My husband and I are committed to implementing these lessons in our household and be an example for our community.