Meet Hannah House Family

Hannah House Family (HHF) runs a small orphanage where 16 children attend school and participate in nightly family devotions. Additionally, HHF invests in the lives of youth through their kids’ clubs and back-to-school programs, pairing gospel ministry with practical support for the kids to thrive in school. The kids’ clubs include trauma healing classes, meals, games, writing, drawing, and Bible stories. The back-to-school program involves locating children who haven’t attended school and providing the necessary supplies, support, and transportation to continue their education.

HHF also works alongside the most vulnerable among widows–those with disabilities, refugees, or persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, or socio-economic standing. Many widows participate in HHF’s six-month sewing program, Women Stand Up, where they learn how to sew and run a small business to move toward self-sufficiency. HHF also builds homes for and distributes blankets to widows.

Burundi is one of the most densely populated and poorest countries in Africa. It is bordered by Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Lake Tanganyika. With a population of 13.6 million people, almost half are under 15. Because the country is almost entirely agricultural, food stability and economic conditions depend on weather and crop health.

Burundi’s civil war only ended in 2005, after decades of conflict between warring ethnic groups, when a new constitution was written that required power to be shared by both. The country experienced another round of unrest in 2015 due to a contested election, but it has been more settled since the president stepped down from office in 2018.

This orphanage cares for children, most of whose parents were killed in the genocide that took place in Burundi several years back. Hannah House Family gives them a home where they can live and be taken care of. They are clean and well taken care of, and the gospel is preached to all of them.