The First Lady of Burundi, Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye, returned on June 15, 2021, from Benin where she carried out a working visit from June 9th to 14th , 2021, a visit which aimed to exchange experience between Benin and Burundi with regard to the school feeding program.

During this working visit, the First Lady of Burundi was accompanied by three ministers from Burundi Government, who are directly concerned with aspects related to school feeding. Those are the Minister of National Education and Scientific Research, Dr. François Havyarimana, the Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Dr. Déo Guide Rurema and the Minister of Public Health and the fight against AIDS, Dr. Thaddée Ndikumana.

In an interview with the press, on her arrival at Melchior Ndadaye International Airport in Bujumbura, Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye, declared to be satisfied with the results of the visit, which she describes as of such a great importance for the revitalization and the sustainability of the national school canteen program in Burundi.

The First Lady of Burundi said that during her stay in Benin, she visited quite a few public primary schools to witness the implementation of the national integrated school feeding program in that country. She said hat the latter is a model from which Burundi could draw inspiration because, in addition to the financial and technical resources devoted to it by the Government of Benin and the World Food Program (WFP), local communities contribute enormously in providing a small portion of their harvest to schools where their children are enrolled.

The First Lady of Burundi also said that this practice, once implemented in Burundi, could help achieve her most ardent wish to see all children benefit from this program, in order to be able to study under the same conditions.

In addition to the visit of school canteens, Her Excellency the First Lady of Burundi indicated that the delegation also had the opportunity to visit the Ouémé valley in which associations and cooperatives cultivate rice, preserve it and mill it in the same place, and WFP buys part of their harvest to contribute to school canteens for public primary schools. This allows associations to find the market for their products, and therefore help strengthen the link between school canteens and increasing of production.

“The delegation also had the opportunity to visit the Songhai Integrated Regional Center which is developing an integrated approach to agriculture, animal husbandry and the environment. The center produces and processes agricultural and livestock products, then places them on the national and international market, being valued and bringing foreign currency to the country, “said the First Lady of Burundi.

She further clarified that what is practiced in the Songhai regional center fits well with the vision of the President of the Republic of Burundi, His Excellency Major General Evariste Ndayishimiye, which stipulates that each mouth must have food and each pocket money.

Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye particularly thanked the population of Goulo Sodji for the confidence placed in her by inviting her to lay the first stone for the construction of a refectory of the school canteen of Goulo Sodji school, in Zê commune, in the Atlantic department.

On the sidelines of this experience exchange visit, the First Lady of Burundi, Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye, met with her counterpart, Her Excellency Claudine TALON. She said she learned a lot from the First Lady of Benin, who is already entering her second term. “It was also an opportunity to establish partnership relations between the Claudine TALON Foundation and the Bonne Action UMUGIRANEZA Foundation, that I am the chairperson,” concluded Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye.