UNDP Profiles SPARK Project in Burundi

The UNDP profiles one of  SPARK’s UNDP Rural Entrepreneurship Projects.  Continue below to read more about business owners Jean-Marie and Adrian.

In Burundi, refugees and ex-combatants turn to business

At a busy solar-powered hair salon, 42-year-old Jean-Marie dishes out the latest hair styles to a steady stream of customers, as well as charges mobile phones.  Nearby, a collectively owned clothes shop rattles with the sound of eight sewing machines. Co-owner Adrian sits out front smiling.  

Both Adrian and Jean-Marie live in in Giharo, a small village near the border with Tanzania in south east Burundi. They are typical business owners in their 40s, but their lives haven’t always been about hem-lines, highlights and hairspray. They were both forced to leave their homes during the country’s long-running conflict. Jean-Marie became a refugee in Tanzania in the 1970s. Adrian had to move to a new town in Burundi. They both returned home when fighting had almost finished in 2007. And they have both taken part in a UNDP scheme that has helped them start their new, successful businesses…read more