Empowered World View: He dreams becoming a successful businessman

In his small village of Cibare in Muyinga province, North of Burundi, Mathias, a father of 3, dreams big. 

During our conversation, he beamed as soon as we mentioned World Vision International Burundi. As, he testifies, the Christian organisation enlightened his paths since he was invited to sessions on the Empowered World View approach.

The ultimate goal of the approach [Empowered World View] is to empower and mobilise individuals, groups and communities’ gifts, talents, knowledge, resources, and capacities (spiritual, social, physical and economic) to drive social change for sustainable child well-being.

Mathias narrates that training sessions on the approach enlightened his mind. As a result, since January 2024, he keeps records of his daily expenses and revenues down to the smallest detail so as to keep a clear picture of his achievements.

For more than three years after the sessions, he used available resources and initiated raising goats and pigs and farming (beans, maize). Out of selling them, he bought a plot of land and built two apartments that he rents out. “With an annual income of 360,000 BIF (123 USD) for each house, I am moving little by little towards my dream: becoming an exemplary businessman in my community,” he says.

With an affirmative look, his wife who stands next to him jumps in the conversation and highlights her contribution in the success of all the family's projects: "Every time he came back from the training, he enthusiastically told me what he was learning. This is how I also benefited indirectly from the sessions”, celebrates Aline, Mathias’ wife.

“We embarked on the same journey with the same motivations. For example, when he takes care of our small shop at the market, I sell portions of our harvests and I give him the money because he is the head of the family. This is how we together do our businesses,” Aline explains, highlighting that in her community that comprises of more than sixty households (Batwa community-a small ethnic group in Burundi), the couple is leading in changing mindsets.

“Do you know that I am the first in this village who was able to live in house with baked bricks, covered with iron sheets and cemented in the inside? Joyfully asks us Mathias. Now, everyone else wants to emulate him,” he adds, remembering the very difficult times his family went through when they only lived in a small hut covered with grasses.