Burundi: The suspension of scholarships for refugees by Maison Shalom satisfies the power of Gitega (part 3)
We will never stop pleading for these young Burundian refugee students who are thrown into the streets by their only remaining Mum, Maison Shalom, with its founder Marguerite Barankitse, by suspending their scholarships for reasons hitherto obscure. The mother did not give valid reasons for this sudden breakup. The only documents consulted are e-mails exchanged between certain persons in charge of the Maison shalom with certain students; correspondence that we cannot qualify as genuine, until we have the answer to the question from Marguerite herself, the mother of abandoned children.
What is this valid reason that can push a mother to abandon more than 70 of her children? The Bible tells us that even a shepherd who loses just one sheep out of a hundred leaves the 99 and spends all his time looking for the one that is lost until he finds it. When he collects her, he has an amazing party.
This colourful language of the Bible wants to speak of us sinners. God never forsakes us even though we sin every day. What sin would these unfortunate students have committed to deserve such a sanction? We don’t think this is the one we found in an excerpt from an email from Maison Shalom Country Director Nijimbere Richard: ‘’you also knew you had to wait for Maison Shalom’s response. The fact that you then unilaterally decided to return to campus without waiting for a response means that you agree to take charge of your training without the help of Maison Shalom, since you have decided to ignore it “. Judge for yourself.
Is this sin enough to stop the lives of so many young Burundians, survivors of the genocide that the cnddfdd is executing against the Tutsis and Hutus of the opposition in Burundi, and who had had the grace of God to run away from these criminals and to have the possibilities to continue their studies in the hope of finding a better life? Rather, is there not another reason behind it? Why does Maison Shalom not want to shed some light on this question? We learn that the organization’s communications officer has reportedly promised to speak out on the case in the days to come. This also prompts us to ask ourselves many other questions. Why take such a long time to enlighten the public when the children of the country are at an impasse? What calculations should Maison Shalom do before communicating? Where has the mother of these children gone who cry without finding someone to console them? Would she be aware of this children’s distress without reacting? We do not think so.
Concerned by this problem, we even come to think that Marguerite Barankitse is not so far aware of this case, that the time given by the communications officer will serve to explain to her the why of this cruel decision, to we hope to be able to change it for the benefit of our poor student brothers. We take the doubt far to imagine if among the staff of Maison Shalom, there would not be infiltrators who would roll on behalf of the cnddfdd in order to sow disorder within this organization and discredit by way consequently Marguerite Barankitse, became enemy number 1 of the cnddfdd (according to the power of Gitega) despite the benefits she did for them when these criminals were still in the bush. We push this reflection very far because being human, we do not manage to understand how normal people can make such a decision which is equivalent for us, and here we are weighing our words, to tie up, torture and kill more than 70 young Burundian refugees, as would the criminals of cnddfdd.
URN HITAMWONEZA hopes that Mama Marguerite will come out of the silence as soon as possible or just change this bad decision. The prodigal son benefited from his father’s forgiveness, he became a child of the house again like the others and benefited from family goods like the others after wasting his share abroad. These young students did not get there if we take into account the sin that Richard Nijimbere sticks to them. They deserve forgiveness as God forgives us sinners every day. While waiting for this pardon, or any other communication on this file, we must already think about how to support these students in the event that the decision is upheld. The answer that Maison Shalom will give to all these questions that public opinion is asking will give us other avenues to pursue the matter to the end. WhatsApp contact: +31685638237
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