
“It was my fault. My mother was taking care of my younger brother, and I went to see what she was cooking… and then the hot water was all over my legs. The first days were very painful, and I had to go many times to the operation room to clean my wound and change the dressings to avoid infection. Now we are doing it in the ward because it doesn’t hurt so much as before, but it still hurts, and I am still scared, even though the doctors and the nurses are very nice to me. I am just afraid of them when I see needles. They say I have to eat more, because my proteins are very low, but I am not very hungry. Sometimes I have to take blood transfusions, to help the healing of the wound… I just hope that I will be able to move my legs in the future, so I can go to school and learn a lot. Doctors say that if every child would go to school, not so many would be burned. But there are not enough schools to everybody in Burundi. That’s why my biggest dream when I grow up, it to build schools for everybody… I have been in the hospital for many weeks with my mother and my brother… I am fed up of being here, and the only thing that makes me happy, is to plan for a better future. I am trying hard to transform my suffering into an opportunity to be strong in my mind, so one day I can fight for a better world!”
Bujumbura, Burundi
- Around 100.000 children die due to burns every year, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Many more stay injured for life due to the retraction of soft tissues while healing.
- Mortality and morbidity from burns are strongly associated with poverty, as fire is still widely used to cook, and to heat the houses.
- In Burundi 50% of the population has never gone to school.
- Fatal fire-related burns in children are 40 times more frequent in Africa than in Europe.