Burundi
Sharing Life Rema Clinic at Nyembuye in Rutana province
Since we formed in 2003 our partner organisation in Burundi has been Rema Ministries, based in the capital, Bujumbura. Burundi is in East Africa and lies on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, sandwiched between Rwanda to the north, the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west and Tanzania to the east.
Sharing Life trustees met Theodore Mbazumutima, one of a small group of Burundian refugees in Nairobi who had a passion to help half a million of their compatriots get back home from refugee camps in East Africa after two genocides in the last 45 years. This group became Rema Ministries, and after a few years in Nairobi they moved back to Burundi as the Tanzanian Government started to empty the refugee camps.
We have been supporting Theo’s work with Rema, which has developed over the years from attending to social and medical needs in the camps to repatriation issues, followed by the building of the Sharing Life Rema Clinic at Nyembuye in Rutana province, where we are enabling a wide range of health education and treatment services to be provided.
Rema’s work covers a wide range of areas beyond the repatriated refugees, including negotiating land justice conflicts between current and historic owners, getting marriages conducted in other countries recognised in Burundi, training on agriculture and small income-generating businesses.
They are funded increasingly by international NGO partners, although lately this has been much affected by the departure of USAid (and consequently other international donors), shuttered under the America First policy of the current administration. A small charity, Rema UK, has for the last 20 years been covering most of their overheads while the NGO’s up their game, and this transition will be completed by the end of 2027.
Burundi is the poorest country in the world on most of the international poverty indices and remains in the grip of a serious fuel shortage which impacts virtually all other spheres of life there. Sharing Life remains a principal supporter of the clinic at Nyembuye and our funding provides medicines for much of the regional population who are unable to access healthcare from the government clinics.
Senegal
Clinic in Ziguinchor
Bethan and family
Bethan a Doctor from the UK married Tenebou a Senegalise and moved out to Senegal to setup a clinic in Ziguinchor. The clinic is progressing well and hoping to open in early 2026.
Kolkata
Night Shelter for those seeking help with addiction.
Pavement Club for street children
One of our international partners is Emmanuel Ministries in Kolkata (Calcutta) India. (www.emcalcutta.org) The charity was started by Vijayan and Premila Pavamani over 40 years ago. As a young married couple they were moved by the extreme poverty that so many were experiencing around them in the city together with problems caused by drug and alcohol addiction. The charity they founded now runs several day centres for homeless children, a school, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres, employment skills training and also homeless shelters. Sharing Life is providing on-going support for a number of these projects. These pictures were taken during a visit by trustees Steve Eyre and John Hulett in February/March 2015.