In Makamba Province in the south of Burundi, New Family for Development has worked since 2006 with about 2,000 households of poor and vulnerable repatriated Burundian refugees (mostly from Tanzania) to help them and their communities produce sufficient to eat.

In addition to receiving instruction on integrated farming methods and prevention of soil erosion, the programme includes provision for each family of a cow or 3 goats, fruit trees and disease-resistant seed and plants suitable for local cultivation. All these must subsequently be reimbursed for a further group of beneficiaries in the same community.

Thus over a number of years the food security of the whole community will significantly improve. The beneficiaries have been helped to set up their own pharmacy of veterinary products and have been taught animal husbandry. Each community has also started a tree nursery with the potential of reversing the national trend towards deforestation in their locality.

In 2009, NFD  constructed  2 crop storage hangars for these beneficiaries which will enable them to store their produce in optimum conditions.

With funding for  2010 - 2012,  NFD has joined with 4 other partners to extend the programme  to other communities.  This phase of the programme includes additional activities such as reclamation of marshland, transformation of agricultural produce and commercialisation of the sale of agricultural produce.  The additional activities will enable the inclusion of other beneficiaries  who have no cultivatable land.