Linda’s Journey: Wezesha Project Burundi and Supporting Women Businessowners
Linda Braunschweiger, CEO of Housing Trust Fund Ventura County and VCCF community member, worked with Wezesha Project Burundi in Africa this summer. This organization offers microloans to women business owners in Burundi, one of Africa’s youngest countries. Due to recent tribal wars, famine, government instability and flooding, many women there have started businesses to sustain themselves and their families.
One of the microloan recipients and her catch of the day for her fishing business
Linda was invited through a church connection, and while she was originally asked to speak at the 1,800 person graduation, she also spent a week in the capital city Bujumbura training, motivating, and encouraging the staff and borrowers in principles of business, nonprofits, and fundraising. Her church also raised money for 400 women to receive bags of rice and beans, keeping their families fed for months without having to make their usual 10-mile trips carrying these heavy bags on their heads back home.
For two weeks while meeting the people of Burundi, Linda was amazed by their joy, passion and commitment despite life’s challenges, evident in their singing and dancing following her speech during the ceremony. Linda met with many graduates and listened to their life stories. One woman living in a flood zone would fish in the mornings and sell her catch to the community, and another started a brickmaking business, employing other women to produce bricks for construction companies. Linda also received a traditional Burundi dress made by one businessowner, a tailor who works in a tiny space to sew beautiful garments on a 1940s sewing machine. Through these businesses, these women can provide homes for their families and send their children to school.
Linda wearing a traditional Burundi dress sewn by a woman from the Wezesha program who owns a small tailor shop
Today, Linda is working remotely with the teams in Burundi to help with their organization’s structure, training, fundraising, and more. She is grateful to live out her passion of mission work, and also happily reported that the nonprofit Seeds of Hope International, a group she worked with during her time serving in Costa Rica, is in the works to set up a clubhouse in Bujumbura to provide after-school support for kids including food and homework help. As someone who has dedicated her life to helping others, whether in Ventura County or nearly 9,500 miles away, it’s mission work like this that helps Linda feel full.