The Service Yezu Mwiza (SYM) in Bujumbura is helping some of its beneficiaries who lost everything when torrential rains swept away their belongings. The rains lashed suburbs of Bujumbura on the night between 9 and 10 February. They left many victims in their wake, who were offered shelter in a camp run by the national Red Cross.

Among those affected are 19 people living with HIV who are supported by SYM, a project run by the Jesuit Region of Rwanda-Burundi. Eleven lost everything when their homes crumbled and their fields flooded. Families were left without clothes and cooking utensils, children without school supplies. The SYM immediately went on home visits to seek out its affected beneficiaries and to distribute blankets, sheets and food supplies from the World Food Program (WFP). The SYM has also decided that those left homeless by the storm will be the first to benefit from one of its projects to build homes for the most vulnerable beneficiaries.