Bethesda Project Burundi

Steve and Lucy depart Muyinga

steve — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:56:18 +0000

On 20th March 2012 Steve and Lucy departed Burundi to make their final tour of the supporting churches in the UK, before they move on to their new role with Scripture Union at Ovoca Manor in Ireland. The team will continue to run the Project in Muyinga, and are looking forward to the arrival of Bridget Hathaway in July, who will continue training the staff and working with them to begin the work in the villages of Muyinga Province.

Bethesda is still looking for a new Project Manager to take over the role of Steve McIlhenny – to manage the new work in the villages and to oversee the development of the Cibare site and the activities with paying groups which will ensure the sustainability of the Project. If you are interested please see the Job Vacancy page of the website for more details.

New Movie

steve — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:28:36 +0000

Steve and Lucy have made a new eight minute movie about The Bethesda Project.

Check it out at the Movies section of the website to see what's going on.

Fence Completed!

steve — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:43:15 +0000

A new barbed wire fence has now been constructed and goes all the way around the 1.2 km perimeter of the Cibare site. This important job means that security on the site is vastly improved and will allow further development of the site.

Canoe Training

steve — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:20:43 +0000

Rob Bianchi visited Muyinga to deliver an intensive canoe training course. The team did very well and enjoyed the opportunity to advance their skills. The Bethesda Project is very grateful to Rob for giving his time to come and help the project with this training and for enabling the team to deliver canoeing sessions to an even higher standard.

Handicapped International’s Inclusive Education Project

steve — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:40:09 +0000

We were very pleased to be asked and to be able to deliver two days of training to a group of head teachers working with Handicapped International to improve inclusive education in Burundi. The aim was to visit and learn from the activities which Bethesda is doing, we introduced them to new inclusive sports and games that can be included in the school system to help integrate people with disabilities. The two days finished with a joint canoeing session with the head teachers and a group of children with disabilities from the Jean Bosco centre, overall it was very successful and the head teachers were amazed and inspired by what they saw

Bridget Hathaway Arrives

steve — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:06:37 +0000

Bridget Hathaway arrived in Burundi on 23rd Jan 2012 to help train our staff and other volunteers in disability awareness and basic care techniques for people with disabilities, so they will be able to begin working in the villages surrounding Muyinga. She will be here for seven weeks intensive training and will be taking our staff for a work placement in Tanzania, visiting a pre-existing "Community based rehabilitation" project. This is an exciting development for the project and we hope that this new aspect of Bethesda's work will make a real difference in the lives of people with disabilities in the Muyinga area.

Raft Building

steve — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:28:56 +0000

Another activity for The Bethesda Project was started on 9th Dec 2011! Raft building is an activity in which teams are given four blue barrels, six wooden poles and lots of rope; they are asked to build their own raft which, as a team, they will then try(!) to paddle across the lake – racing other teams to the finish!

Our staff enjoyed the training and we are looking forward to introducing it to groups soon.

Euphobia Fence

steve — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:24:36 +0000

Members of the local church in Muyinga volunteered to help plant a euphobia fence all the way around the new Cibare Site. It took three mornings work to plant a tree every half meter around the 1.2km perimeter – a massive 2,400 holes dug and plants planted! It's been really exciting to see the plants taking root and the fence taking shape!

See the gallery for more pictures of the planting….

Visitors

steve — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:20:15 +0000

Vicky Whibley and Chris Binks arrived on 15th Nov 2011 to help the project for one month. They have been very busy and extremely helpful – teaching First Aid, drawing an Orienteering map from scratch and setting new routes, teaching our new Raft Building activity and designing and planning a Low Ropes course for our new site. We hugely appreciate all they have given to the project,

see the gallery for more pictures of their stay.

Competition launched!

lucy — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:01:12 +0000

We have recently launched a competition to win TWO FLIGHTS TO BURUNDI! The aim of the competition is to raise money to secure our beautiful new land and to design an exciting new team sport or activity that will be used with groups on the new land.

Check out the new "Competition" page on our website for more information or to join in!