country programs
About Youth Crime Watch of Burundi
Youth Crime Watch of Burundi helps schools, colleges and communities in Burundi start and sustain their crime watch programs. Services include:
- Background information about Youth Crime Watch
- YCW awareness presentations
- YCW implementation training for new sites
- Technical assistance getting new sites started
- Technical assistance once sites are up and running
News from Burundi
October 2008: First school group gets underway in Bujumbura
Youth Crime Watch of Burundi visited Ngagara Lycee, a school in the Ngagara Quarter of Bujumbura, for a two-hour training on crime prevention basics. YCWB trainers passed out programs describing the philosophy and benefits of Youth Crime Watch. The students expressed great interest in the YCW program and chose Nimubona Eric (pictured below with YCWB president Rwabira Joseph) to lead its YCW efforts. The group plans to meet weekly.
Members of the Ngagara Lycee YCW program after their first weekly meeting.
Rwabira Joseph, president of YCWB, with Nimubona Eric, leader of the school's emerging YCW program.
October 2008: YCWB on the airwaves
Rwabira Joseph, president of YCWB, and Rupereza Eustache, the program's secretary, sat in with journalist Simbananiye Yvonne at school radio Nderagakura for a 2 o'clock broadcast on the topic of peace in Kirundi (Rondera Amahoro). The two YCWB representatives took the occasion to introduce the nine components of Youth Crime Watch to the Burundi listening public: Reporting, patrols, public education, bus safety, mentoring, resolution, mediation, peer teaching, and action projects.
June 2008: Early outreach efforts with scouts
YCW Burundi has launched its program with outreach efforts aimed at scouting organizations. The young scouts will form the basis of the program's expansion efforts at the beginning of the next school year. YCWB representatives visited two groups in Burundi's capital city, Bujumbura; the Saint Joseph troop and the Scout Lumiere. The youth come from various locations and it is hoped that they will take news of the YCW concept home with them.
We salute this admirable early work by Rwabira Joseph and his team in Burundi. Wonderful photos below:
YCWB president Rwabira Joseph introduces YCWB concepts to the Saint Joseph scouts in Bujumbura.
Saint Joseph scouts attend to Rwabira Joseph's presentation.
Youth members of Scout Lumiere in Bujumbura stopped for a group photo after their introduction to Youth Crime Watch. YCWB president Rwabira Joseph and the cheif of the Scout Lumiere are at the middle.
Summer 2008: Burundi joins the Youth Crime Watch community
Youth Crime Watch of Burundi was officially established under Ministerial Ordinance 530/630 on June 5, 2008. The new group has already begun efforts to reach out to and repair a community still recovering from over a decade of civil war. Its early efforts will focus on youth-serving organizations, schools, and universities. Working on a shoestring budget, YCWB is powered largely by its staff, many of them university students committed to promoting stability and democracy in their country. We wish them the best of luck in their efforts.
