{"id":1167,"date":"2014-03-31T11:03:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T10:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/blogs\/english\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2014-03-31T11:03:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T10:03:36","slug":"for-the-love-of-burundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/for-the-love-of-burundi\/","title":{"rendered":"For the love of Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018For The Love of Burundi\u2019 is an association of young and inspired Burundians, which promotes behavioral change through youth and sends a clear message: do what you can with what you have, right where you are<\/strong>.-By Joanna Nganda<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Erica<\/a>

Erica Gateka (in the middle) with her team.\u00a9Iwacu<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/em><\/strong>Erica Gateka, 21 years old Burundian lady, is the Founder of \u2018For the Love of Burundi\u2019. This student in Accounting was inspired by the story of a 23 years old Rwandan millionaire. \u201cHis story is the perfect example of extra efforts being rewarded. Dominique Ntirushwa worked in the customer care services, and unlike his boss and coworkers, he decided to work extra hours and provide real help to customers. He ended up having an award and a lot of money that he chose to reinvest in the same company,\u201d explains Erica. According to her, we are all able to make a change to better Burundi: \u201cit starts with small things. For instance, for a corruption-free country, we have to start at school by stopping cheating. For a clean city, we have to stop throwing trash in the streets.\u201d When Erica came back home after 18 years in Zambia, she had a vision: to make sure that youth\u2019s present behavior is having a positive impact on Burundi\u2019s future. \u201cPeople always envision a big fire. Like when you hear people say \u201cwhen I\u2019ll be rich, I\u2019ll help street children!\u201d but it doesn\u2019t have to be that way\u2026Do what you can now! Instead of a big fire, see a spark. Every fire starts with a spark, and based on these little sparks everywhere, a fire will eventually come to life\u201d, states Erica Gateka.
\nShe shares that funds and resources are not easy to come by but she does not take it as an excuse. Currently, she and her partners are driving campus-based surveys to determine what young Burundians are waiting for to take actions, \u201cwe found out that most students really lack a vision. Dream and passion are missing. They follow paths parents chose for them and do what family expects them to do\u201d.
\nErica Gateka and her partners also opened a Facebook page (\u2018Just Love Burundi\u2019) to raise awareness and inspire young people with real-life stories. During the course of this year, a Creative Fair will be organized to gather young people from all over Burundi and different backgrounds to brainstorm and share great ideas. \u201cYoung people should not only see problems but also be proactive and find solutions. We are the future of this country, and change starts with us.\u201d Erica concludes.
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\u2018For The Love of Burundi\u2019 is an association of young and inspired Burundians, which promotes behavioral change through youth and sends a clear message: do what you can with what you have, right where you are.-By Joanna Nganda Erica Gateka, 21 years old Burundian lady, is the Founder of \u2018For the Love of Burundi\u2019. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[240,268],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}