Umuryango Ukomera Uri Hamwe - Families Are Strong Together

Summary

Children living in poverty often are at risk to leave their family to work at the landfill. The main reasons for this are torn family systems, family violence, exclusion, poverty and a lack of intra-familial communication. Children in the district of Buterere who spend their days on the streets or on the landfills of Bujumbura, Burundi to earn a living are particularly vulnerable. The project aims to create a safe environment for these young people and to strengthen their family structures in the long term. For this purpose, we plan to treat traumatized parents psychotherapeutically and to improve their parenting skills within the families in group and family sessions. The financial situation is to be improved in the medium term through agricultural group projects. In addition, participating children and youths will be granted access to school and education, and participate in a skill training group to improve social competencies. In the long term, parents are to set up savings and micro credit groups in order to ensure the education of the children. The project involves 40 families, which are particularly affected by poverty and traumatic experiences. The project is based on scientific findings of the implementing organizations, which carried out similar projects in Burundi in the last years.

Conditions

• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Aggressive Behaviour
• Parental Maltreatment
• Days Spent at the Landfill

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Comprehensive family intervention including individual sessions of FORNET

Families in the intervention group received: 1. Parents participate in a group intervention once a week for about 20 weeks, including psychoeducation on mental health and drug and alcohol abuse, anger management, family planning, parenting skills, communication skills, and dealing with couples conflicts 2. Family visits to address topics as family cohesion, intra-familial communication and psychological basic need of children 3. Trauma-focused therapies (FORNET), which aim also at reducing violent behaviour 4. Parents receive training regarding agriculture and micro credit projects, and financial assistance 5. One child per family receives a social skill training group preparing them for returning to school 6. Access to schools and school material 7. If needed medical assistance is provided 8. If needed legal assistance is provided

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Vivo international e.V.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Psychologues sans Frontières Burundi

  collaborator OTHER

• Université Lumière de Bujumbura

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Konstanz

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

7 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-04-06

Primary Completion

2020-05-27

Completion

2020-05-27

Countries

• Burundi

Study Locations