Explore Burundi is our series featuring cultural information and insights into the place where we work, and where you help us bring hope to so many.
Burundi is one of the smallest countries in Africa, but within its tiny borders there is a vast array of landscapes. From rolling hills, to hidden waterfalls and beautiful lake side beaches, the beauty of Burundi will amaze you.
One of the most striking regions is Songa, which happens to be Gilbert Tuhabonye’s home village. The landscape here is a beautiful, rolling mixture of family farms, dirt roads, and lush green foliage. On any given day you will likely come across a young boy herding cattle as they graze available forage and a mom with her children carrying water jugs back to their homes.
One of the tallest peaks in Songa is the Ndago Mountain, topping out at nearly 7,000 feet in elevation. Although Gilbert's daily trek to school as a young boy did not include climbing this peak, he did traverse multiple valleys with hundreds of feet in elevation change. Banana trees cover the region and so you will share the road with locals transporting bunches of bananas on their bikes, stacked so high and wide you wonder how they stay upright. The banana trees also serve as easy entertainment: children use the wide, slick leaves from the banana trees to slide down mountainsides.
The Songa Commune is also the site of the Gazelle Foundation's first water system completed in 2007. While very few have plumbing within their homes, every resident in the area now has access - usually within 400 meters - to clean drinking water. See all completed water systems.
