Craig Pollard [00:00:03]:
Welcome back for another episode of the Fundraising Radicals podcast. I'm your host, Craig Pollard. Our exploration of global fundraising continues today with Dieudonné Nahimana. Now this one is extra special for me. Dieudonné is one of the most impressive and resilient humans I have ever met and I really don't say that lightly. Like 100 of 1000 of other Burundians, the direction of Dieudonné's life was drastically altered during the civil war in 1993, when his father was murdered, and he ended up living on the streets of the capital, Ujumbura. Living with and supporting that community of resilient and creative children who survive together without their families has shaped his vision for the future of the whole country. He has established New Generation, which is now nearly 25 years old.
Craig Pollard [00:00:56]:
And his home and his meals and even his wedding day have always been shared with dozens, if not hundreds of street children. And he has trained thousands of young people across Burundi in peace building and reconciliation. And he's led by example. He forgave the man who murdered his father, and is now sponsoring the education of his children. He has won awards for his work. He ran for president of Burundi in 2020. Not for himself, but to show others what is possible. He lost that contest, but the nature and grace of his defeat and the public calls for reconciliation, he gave Burundi its first peaceful election for 60 years. Yet, New Generation still struggles to secure the funding they need to pay their staff, many of whom are former street children, to support entrepreneurship of these creative young people and feed hundreds of other children who rely on New Generation to survive on the streets of Burundi.
Craig Pollard [00:02:05]:
Welcome to the Fundraising Radicals podcast, Dieudonné Nahimana. It's wonderful to see you again.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:02:12]:
It's really good to see you again after 12 years.
Craig Pollard [00:02:16]:
The last time we were sitting on the hillside, and you just completed the first building of the New Generation village. And since we last spoke and saw each other, you've also run for the president of Burundi.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:02:34]:
Yeah. That's, that's it.
Craig Pollard [00:02:36]:
You have been busy. So please tell me I mean, you know, I I know you're used to sharing your story. It's a very powerful story, and I'd love to hear about that and about where New Generation is and everything. But it's just wonderful to see you.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:02:53]:
No. Thank you so much for this opportunity to be able to share again my story and also what is happening in Burundi. Maybe people will be listening about this podcast. They don't know where Burundi is. Maybe because some people don't know really and and where we are in in in the context of our country for the moment. And, yeah, as you know, Burundi is a small country in East African community. We have Rwanda North, DRC Congo in on the west and, Tanzania on, east. And Burundi, yeah, today is still moving between the, the poorest to the 2nd poorest country in the world.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:03:34]:
And these last, 2 weeks have been very bad because we have floods, and more than a 100,000 people have been displaced. Yeah. I grew up in this country, north of Burundi, where exactly we have been, seeing we're planning to to build we are starting to build a village for the street kids. And when the war civil war started in 93, my father was killed with the other 19 member of my community. And now it's more than 30 years. I haven't even see where the bodies have been buried, and I end up, living on streets. And, there were so many street kids living on streets, and I I start to help them with, minimum I had. No.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:04:19]:
I didn't have enough resources to be able to help many of the children. And with that, passion of serving and helping children, the youngest as well, who is suffering more than me. New generation was was, born, in, 98 when we started New Generation, really as a a movement with a purpose of raising the next generation of leaders from those who are neglected, like the street kids and the victims of the civil war and bring them to be reconciled between them and also to dream big. And even you just said that even when I was running in 2020 was an example to show that for my strategic child can go to the level, can stand to try to bring a solution for the for the country. Yeah. And New Generation is doing well. I have now a new team. The children who grew up in New Generation, that now haven't taken over the management of New Generation.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:05:16]:
We have the still have the main program of street kids program where, we have a hundreds of street children. We have on the streets, we have around a 133 children who are now staying, with us. We send them back to school. We have our back to school program when, they go until they finish, secondary school. We have, now, 6, children who grew up in generation who are at the university, who are now, studying at university in our university fund program. And, yeah, what is very good news now, we have our proper plot whereby, land in Bujumbura where we are building our centre. We have started to build the first building on that plot in Bujumbura, which is very well located and help us to to now start to do our own activities, don't have to pay rent every day. And, yeah, this, main, street kids program, which is keep going on, and we have, our, leadership training program we do for the young people.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:06:21]:
Mainly, those come from the from the streets. We teach entrepreneurship, how they can start their own businesses, but, also, we train them to become future leaders in different face fears of the society. And we have a 3rd program, which is the campaign of forgiveness and reconciliation. As you remember, I've been sharing the story how I managed to forgive the person who killed my father, and now I'm taking care of his children. They are now under our care from our family. I even saw them last week. I was visiting our village, and they are doing well. They are now finishing school, and and now we use that motto of forgiveness and reconciliation to teach other young people in the in different places in the country.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:07:06]:
Like, a month ago, I went to a village where he was born. The president was killed in 90 3, in the beginning of the civil war, and managed to gather around 4,000 young people and give the testimony and ask them to take the step of forgiveness and reconciliation. Yeah. This is the 3 main program we are doing in New Generation. But in the meantime, because I'm more mainly now focusing on fundraising for New Generation, try to mobilize, and to have to teach also leaders of other organizations. I have started the foundation, d n f foundation, which helped me to do fundraising and to try to to also go beyond New Generation and and help, other organizations. And, also, we have, an, an incubator for social enterprise for the young people called Uber Agency, where we turn young people to to start their own business, but they they haven't a hub where they can come and learn and go start their own businesses. Yes.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:08:12]:
Of course, because of the context of the country, we are really, really struggling with the economy of the country. We don't have fuel. If if if I was not able to connect on time, it's because there's no electricity and there's no no fuel. The, yeah, the the economy of the country is really, really bad and also affects our funding also for the organization. We are really struggling to be able to keep going and to, to, to fund everything. This what I can give as a summary of what we are doing now.
Craig Pollard [00:08:44]:
This is a 30 year struggle. Yep. The personal example you set for giving the man who killed your father and supporting his children, it is incredible, and I guess it's it's key to you having the credibility to be able to talk about this as well. But you say these things so easily. Right? But you've had this huge family of street children, like, living in your home and around you constantly for the past sort of 25 years. You've given so much of yourself and, you know, Mariam and the family. It sort of it blows my mind, and you and you mentioned it sorta so easily. But these are massive sorta personal sacrifices that and this 25 year journey.
Craig Pollard [00:09:31]:
How do you you know, when you see you're struggling, you know, with the economy, with the challenges seeking funding, how do you keep going? How do you motivate yourself and and just keep doing the work?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:09:43]:
Yeah. Yes. Of course. As you you said, it's a sacrifice every day. You you suffer. Even now, I'm, I'm here, but, after this podcast, I have to make sure I try to find enough food for the kids and the people who are displaced who are now knocking on the door and say, can you help? And it's that that land life every day. And what to give us hope is the dream we have of what is going to happen in this country. We we believe that's yes.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:10:09]:
Most of the countries in the world went through some very hard, situations, but they managed to have people who are courageous and who stood up and then start to do what they can. And then suddenly, the sun start to to to shine. And I think what to keep us going is what we see in the future because we have that dream of seeing a New Generation of leaders with a different mindset taking over, leading the country, bringing people to be reconciled. We have a country with, enough resources for everyone to live a very good life. It's a beautiful country. It's green. You can grow any kind of crops from north to south. You can, we have mines.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:10:51]:
We have, the biggest, deepest lake, Tanganyika, which is there enough enough fish, for the whole country, but no one is the fish is still very expensive, only for the main city. And it's it's a question of about leadership and mindset which need to be changed. And I believe that the generation we are raising, one day, they'll be in that position where they can make good decisions for the country. Yes. Of course, people don't understand us. Close peoples don't understand us. Every time we go out abroad, people give us offer of staying their countries and give us a comfortable life. But we we think if we just focus on us and what we need, we can sacrifice generations.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:11:36]:
And I think for a long time, we don't think about ourselves. As I shared with you when you came here, on my wedding day, I had 30 children from the street living with me in the house. That had been everyday life. We have, every time, hundreds of kids and with the minimum resources. We don't have a a bigger funding. We, someone was asking me, what do you want to have as a big miracle for your life? I said that the day I can wake up and know that I have a budgets, the the funds for 6 months, that would be the biggest aberration in my life. Every month, I start I have maybe promises of 50%, 60% budget they give to me, and I have to fight to try to see if I can cover that. And and next month is the same situation.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:12:25]:
We are on 1st of May. I don't have enough salaries for the people working because people give maybe food, but not salaries or paying for other wages, I think. And, yes, of course, we expect the one day to take holiday, maybe. I was telling my wife is 23 years. We are married. I say, maybe one day we will have a honeymoon. We didn't have it for 33 years. But, yeah, we need to pay the price.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:12:54]:
Every time we ask ourselves, if we don't do this, we'll be doing it. And we just say, let's copy keep doing, and we enjoy it when we see some successful stories. Yeah. Saturday, when there's, before wedding, there's some 2 kind of to go to ask, the family of the the bride the the the girl that we are going to come to for the wedding. 1 of the he was the the youngest in in, in 2000 in my house. He's now leader of the Sweet Children Program in New Generation. He's going to be married in June, and it was very good to be there as a parent, ask for the, yeah, for the the family to to to accept for their daughter to come to be married with him. And that's give us joy to keep going and just wake up and say, okay.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:13:50]:
At least this happened, and, we enjoy it. And I think these are kind of things keep giving us fuel. Sometimes they are totally discouraged. We don't we don't understand how it's going to be, but, we'll keep leaving maybe one day. I I believe that's one day I can wake up. I'll be able to have okay. Tell the team on accounts we have, the funds for the for the whole year and everything. And then now I can think of other things done just to manage the the smallest things.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:14:23]:
Yeah. The dream, the vision, the hope we have.
Craig Pollard [00:14:27]:
How much would that be for 6 months?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:14:29]:
Yeah. For for the moments, yeah, we we we we try to use we are very familiar to work with the with the, a minimum of resources. Like, the budgets we normally have for year is around, is around 600 $1,000. That's that's that's the budget for year. And, sometimes it depends. Some month we have, some time, month we don't have. It's mainly when also we include some, capital projects. Like, we are building places to be able to to to invest in that.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:15:03]:
Like now, we have a a project where we are building some shops, which can bring income because we are very well positioned. We managed to have, around 40, almost 40 percent of the budget we need to build. I have a a volunteer who come from UK to help with the projects. We are fundraising for the the that that project, which could cost around $300,000. We already have a 100 and something, someone had promised to to give, and we will be able to generate income, which can continue, without going to fundraise every every time. And during the COVID time, we've we came down, and we have lost a lot of funding. And so we had to close some houses of the kids, we had, we are taking care of. Yeah.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:15:50]:
That's the kind of dream, say, if I woke up and say, on your account, you have 6,000, $600,000 for the whole year. That's that is the maximum. We we now work with around 400, you know, with the minimum because we don't meet our budget every time. We try to struggle with that. But we we believe one day will happen, and in locally, we don't have that kind of funding around. But every time we try to keep keep going and, sometimes yeah. Some years is where the situation are better when I manage to travel because most of the time, even if you can travel to fundraise, no one is funding the traveling. Sometimes you you have people who are waiting for you to listen to your story, but you can't pay your tickets to travel to go there.
Craig Pollard [00:16:40]:
You can't get there. Yeah.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:16:43]:
Yeah. This is the kind of situation. But, yeah, we keep hope, and we believe that's I even exaggerate and say that for us, the poverty in Burundi is more than maybe the apartheid in South Africa or other issues we went through the world went through. And the world's people stand together to fight against, something which was against humanity. But it's the same also for Roond. Roond, if you manage to shift the trajectory of how things are happening, Rwanda, in 96, they're 5 behind Burundi. In our in the economy, in in security, everything was destroyed in in Rwanda in 6 in 96. Now there are I don't know how many times ahead of Burundi just because they managed to shift things, but we we think it's possible.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:17:35]:
If that happened to Rwandi's who are the same, with the same language, same history, same struggles, that mean the population of Burundi can do better also in few time, in few, yeah, that's the kind of strength and, path we have for the future, which keep keep us going.
Craig Pollard [00:17:54]:
And you you do have this you have this deep faith in Burundi and the potential. You know, you mentioned a few few elements there as well. And I I remember you talking about that coming from the streets, from StreetShield, and this this moving away from ethnic identity and sort of the divisiveness of this and and the resilience of these young children growing up on the streets and them as potential leaders. And, you know, you're you're saying that that the project is now managed by your former street children who have been in your care. Are you seeing those people into into leadership positions as well through the whole New Generation program. And is that giving you hope that the future is achievable?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:18:42]:
Yes. Of course. Remember when we start to tell to the kids, they'll be the pride of the country. They'll be traveling and everything. During that time, it was difficult to think that's we even we may need to keep going. We even managed to keep going. But when the the I remember when I took the the first football team to the, World Cup in in Rio in 2014, No one understood that Burundians we don't have even a history of football, but taking the fur the Swiss children from Burundi got to play in the World Cup in Rio, for the Swiss Child World Cup. And when we land there, we didn't have even the the the boots, the football boots for to play for football.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:19:25]:
Someone had to connect to that from a school and bring it to us. I mean, we managed to play to the final of the World Cup. No one was able to understand that. When we came back, the president of the republic welcomed the children. They were on the news, everywhere. We went back in in in Rio again for the Olympic Games, and we had first gold medal was for, one of the children in in in in generation 96 in 2006, 2016. Sorry. And we went there, and we went we come back.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:19:57]:
We welcomed. We went in Moscow for the World Cup in 2018. We become 3rd in the world. We're in Qatar, 2022. We come 3rd in the world. For the first time ever in Burundi, the student just come back from India for the Cricket World Cup. We don't play cricket in Burundi, but we managed to go to the Cricket World Cup in India, and they come back. These are the dreams which has start to become true, and people see if that happened, why not even, have influence in different spheres? And, also, remember that with other programs, we're not only focusing on the street children.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:20:34]:
We also train young people in different schools, different communities. Personally, I have trained more than 12,000 young people in our in our leadership training program where we we we give them values to become servant leaders, how they can peep become leaders who don't think for themselves, but think to develop the community and the country. That generation is coming closer now to be in the position where they can be involved in the leadership of the country. Some have been involved in politics. Some will be involved in business. Some will be involved in other spheres of the society and bring the change. We believe that, and we feel closer to that than, when we started. Yes.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:21:17]:
Of course, sometimes because of the weight of our resources we don't have, push us sometimes down and but but we keep believing that it will happen. And as I've been sharing to many people, one day, people read the news. Understand there was luck. Some miracles happen in Singapore and Rwanda and other countries. Will be one of the country they can say something happens. There's a generation who changed everything, and now the country become, better. You see, even myself now, I'm speaking, English when we we met.
Craig Pollard [00:21:52]:
Exactly. Yeah.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:21:53]:
I was struggling. I didn't go to any course of English, but we keep improving. Even the country improve one day.
Craig Pollard [00:22:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. My French is is nowhere near good enough to have that conversation. But but I remember you it was the translation that actually resulted in your first donation. Right? Yeah. You're working as a translator on the street.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:22:12]:
Yeah. Because I didn't go to any courses. Like, when you came, I was really not able to speak and to have a conversation. And we we train we train young people to believe that they have the possibility, the potential, the to develop the the capacity, what they have in in their lives. And, yeah, we know that one day we'll be able to sit down and watch and see what is happening. And, yeah.
Fundraising Radicals [00:22:37]:
If you're enjoying this conversation and would like to hear other global perspectives on fundraising and leadership in the nonprofit sector, then please do subscribe using the links in the show notes. If you wanna find out more about our work, please do visit our website, www.fundraisingradicals.com. Now, back to the conversation.
Craig Pollard [00:22:37]:
And this incredible movement of, you know, the 12,000 young people that have been through your training, the I mean, this is across the whole of Burundi as well. And I remember talking to you about this being a key part of it being around the peace building side of it as well is this negotiation, this reconciliation side of things. Have you seen that reducing conflict and violence in Burundi as a result of that program?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:23:05]:
Yes. Of course. And, even, you know, that you maybe don't know, but in 2018, I was decorated by the president of republic. He gave me the national recognition of people who have been fighting for peace and reconciliation in the country on Independence Day, in Burundi. And that was a recognition from even a leader. I didn't have any personal relationship with him, but the commission recognized that the work we have been doing have impacted the country. And even when you see one of the main reason also I was running as a presidential candidate in 2020, when it was the first time, like, an independent can run from the beginning to the end. The main thing was to give a message to the young people who have trained all the other country to fight for that's after elections, there's all going to be bloodshed.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:24:00]:
And, for the first time since sixties, 61, 62, every time there was election in Burundi, after elections, people have been killed in terms of, hundreds of people have been killed. But, this election in 2020, there was no, record about people killing each other, young people fighting one against another because we we we stand up together and say, even if you don't agree with the results of our directions, you are now, if you you do something to shed the the shed the the the blood, that should be a gassed generation, not only for, the political party you're not happy of. We we don't want to take that credit on us, but somehow I can say that the work we have done, have been that result of seeing that in, many elections have been happening in the past. The 2020 was, was, the best. In terms of, the procedures on the results, that that's that's something else. But the term of seeing that people are peaceful, young people are not running on the streets and kill each other, that was the first time that happened. And even, last 2 weeks ago, the president of republic was talking about the next, election process. He was talking about what happened in 2020.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:25:19]:
He had to talk about me. He he and he say my name and say that's the way we conduct our election process have give, to young people, an attitude of be peace peacemakers than, people who are fighting one another. And I think it's a lot. We have we struggle with the poverty, lack of, minimum, resources we need, but there's no record of many killings going on like used to be in the last, 5, 25 years.
Craig Pollard [00:25:49]:
Which is incredible. The genocide, the the the conflict in 93, 94 cast such a long shadow. And you you know, 30 years since all of that, do you think Burundi will ever get out from under that, or is it you know, do we need a couple of generations before that will happen?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:26:06]:
Yeah. I think what we try to do is not just to resolve the problem on surface, like, we go deep. We go in we we are now taking the roots. Because every time there was a process of negotiations, like in Tanzania or other political activities. We're not we're only resolving what is happening, the the what we see happening.
Craig Pollard [00:26:31]:
The symptoms.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:26:32]:
The symptoms. But for us, in New Generation, what we are trying to build is to raise a generation with another understanding and and and how they value humanity, how they value one another, how they understand that we are we are all one even if we can be different in one way or another. I mean, it's the reason why we have taken touch through to which go was going to take long. I remember some of the friends in 2000, they were, like, saying, no. No. No. No. No.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:27:00]:
This is too long. You can't, wait 25 years to turn, you have to do something for the next 5 years. But I was thinking, no. The very important thing is to raise that generation with the different mindsets, different values. And then when they are there, we're not going to go back again the same cycle because we have now really have been focusing on healing from the roots, not only from the the branches. It's it's why we we believe that if you manage, yes, of course, we still have some tension, which still coming from those who are still there on a position of influence from the previous generations. But now, after that, yes, of course, in the context where we are, we don't know how things are, how can that be, and things like that because of economy, because of situation. But I believe, if we pass that stage of time, maybe, the next generation will give us a possibility to be stable for very, very long term.
Craig Pollard [00:28:01]:
It's a life's work. Right?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:28:03]:
Yep.
Craig Pollard [00:28:04]:
And and it's beyond that, possibly. How does that fit? The length of time you're talking about you're talking about, you know, 50 year project. Right? You're you're sort of halfway through it. Right?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:28:14]:
Yep.
Craig Pollard [00:28:14]:
How does that fit with donors and partners who have much shorter sort of cycles and attention spans. How do you manage that and bring them in? And . . .
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:28:26]:
Yeah. We still really we can say that we have succeed in that area because most of time, until today, we didn't we haven't managed to be able to bring donors and people who are really involved in what we are doing in direct contact. Every time there's going to be someone between us and the person, we need to go through some fundraiser organizations or whoever some experience. Some few people I managed to be in touch with. They've been really, really, touched and be committed for long term. What's very good is, like, for the last maybe 20 or 15 years, each donor who have started to give, a little or much, from that time, no one have stopped. No one have leave us on on on or halfway. There's only because the needs are big, and, also, people we don't have many people who are keeping going, and and then we now start to see how we can be, able to connect and to talk to people who can also say, let's invest in something long term and something tangible.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:29:33]:
Like, for example, the person who helped us to funded more the the funds to buy, the land where we have our centre in Bujumbora, that was the biggest amount of money we have received so far. It's someone who really have managed to have a 15 minute conversation with me, and he say, wow. If I can do something. And that was really something for long term. Now we're struggling to to fundraise to be able to to build our permanent houses. Like, for example, we have enough space to build even accommodation for the kids. Yeah. But for the moment, we're still renting houses outside the compound because we don't have permanent houses on on on the we're now focusing on, agriculture because we know agriculture is is the future for Burundi.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:30:18]:
But, also, we can grow we use agriculture for creation. We have a program we call redeeming the land where we bring people, from those, the victim of the civil war, and those have been accused or their children, that there was involved in killings to come together in the reconciliation, but also working for growing crops, and they can share the the harvest and serve the other harvest. And we want to see how that can be transformed to level where we can have can, grow enough food, to secure the food for the our kids, the young people in the programs, but also to be able to serve to the people who can buy it and that can generate. We have some, for example, now a business plan for that program, which connect to the vision we have. But, yes, of course, we haven't funds for that. We have started with one area to show what is possible or what we can do. We we can say for the until today, we have 1, 2, 3 organizations who already have 26 other organization they are supporting, and we are one of them. And we put some newsletter sometimes there, and and they have to choose if we have to prioritize as, and or or other countries.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:31:36]:
And sometimes you don't have direct contact with donors, and they they don't have access also to you. They they know from the intermediary person or organization, and sometimes you can't really share the details of their story. Because one of the problem in the beginning was not to be able to communicate well in English or write in emails or or to know how to create, content for newsletters. Now the pharmaceutical who grew up in New Generation in the country, they are the best in the social media and, creating content for for video and everything.
Craig Pollard [00:32:14]:
Yeah.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:32:14]:
We are doing well. We have some equipments. We do all our video. We do all our websites. And Yeah. And I we have the content, but we we don't know how to fundraise. We we we don't know how to communicate. We don't know how to we know how to report.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:32:31]:
We know how to give every the kind of details, but because we we haven't had access to donors. One day, I was invited, in, in in London. Some one of our friends organized a a fundraise fundraising event, and he said that I invite you because every time we do a a fundraising event, we can raise around £20,000 or £25,000. That's very good reason for you to come because if that's enough money for you, you need it. I traveled there, and I was there. He did that, events, Friday evening. He had, like, around 190 CEOs and CFOs of companies. And he say, you know what? Yeah.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:33:14]:
We can expect around 25,000. And he even start to ask me, what do you plan to do with that? And say, no. I prefer to wait until we finish the event. When we know what we have, I can tell you what maybe we can plan money for. And here, I had to I talk like they give me a talk for 30 minutes, and people are donating, and the the you see the donations on the screen. And at the end of the evening, we have raised a £133,000. He was shocked. He say, we have been doing for years years.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:33:49]:
We don't understand how you we managed to fundraise this. That was the time of finishing buying the uploads and be able to buy, like, a vehicle for the for the organization, everything. But I know if people manage to to hear the story and the what's the the dream we have, people will support. But because we need to go through other structures already there, sometimes difficult. And sometimes also, not every everybody, but some, intermediate structures, they want to dictate you what to do sometimes, and they tell you you should do this. You know the donor who didn't say that, but someone else will come and say this. Oh, too much administration thing just for that organization, and it costs you too much and, then to to make an impact. That's kind of struggle struggle we have been having.
Craig Pollard [00:34:43]:
You say you don't know how to fundraise, but I but I think you're incredibly natural. And I think your story is incredibly compelling, but it's not just your story. It's it's the authenticity. It's the it's the the scale of the impact, the scale of the ambition. And when you have the opportunity to share that, as you say, it works, but your challenge is connecting to donors and getting in front of donors and and what you describe about, you know, intermediaries, etcetera, wanting to dictate to you how to spend the money. It it this makes me deeply angry because, you know, you you are the experts here. You have been doing this for 25 plus years, and you have been operating on less than a shoestring throughout that period.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:35:25]:
There's another thing which make me struggling sometimes when I remember one day I was having conversation, and that's the there's sometimes where you feel people don't trust you because you're just brilliant. Like, every time you go to have money, you have been spending everything you have to support, to help, but someone trusts you with even less what than once you have been support. And in his mind, he think you're going to use that for your better thing. And you but when someone is from Europe, is there, it's like we can trust him 100%. Of course. Sometimes that can . . .
Craig Pollard [00:35:58]:
It's racism within fundraising, it's very real. Right?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:36:02]:
Yeah.
Craig Pollard [00:36:02]:
It's white donor trusts white beneficiary, white project program manager. Whereas the reality is there's deep racism whether it's recognized or not recognized, but the impact is massive because you have to work 50, a 100, a 1000 times harder.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:36:23]:
I have to prove.
Craig Pollard [00:36:24]:
You know, in terms of transparency, in terms of, accountability, in terms of everything. And, you know, this makes me another thing that makes me deeply angry about the the the world of funding is that you talk about I was reading an article about trust based philanthropy, and it was saying that the future of, philanthropy is trust based. Well, it's just actually, the future of philanthropy is is just not being racist. Right, when it comes to to making donations. It's about trusting people and and, sort of seeing beyond the differences. Yeah. It's, it's, you know, incredibly . . .
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:36:59]:
And most of the time, what I have realized, most of the time, they are not the donors. Most of the time, there are these structures between donors and and and the project on ground, which try to control, and and, they don't even respect the will of the donor sometimes.
Craig Pollard [00:37:15]:
And the structures and the processes and and things that that have been built sort of inherently have this bias within them as well. Right?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:37:23]:
Yeah. Many it's because I understand it's okay to be accountable. It's okay to be sure how, expenses. But most of the time, it's like when for us, we have given everything we have. We don't have our own. It's like
Craig Pollard [00:37:41]:
You've given you've given more. You've given so much more than everything you have. You've you've given everything and then more.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:37:47]:
Yeah. Someone come with money, it look like, now become more important because just, it's just because giving you money and then just value is a sacrifice and, also the, the integrity have shown for the last 20 and last years. That's kind of things which, yeah, of course, we struggle with. And mainly people say, no. We don't. Prefer to give money to this country. We know this area. We don't.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:38:17]:
But, I think, yeah, we stay here because we believe that's the all this will change one day.
Craig Pollard [00:38:22]:
It's like you don't have a choice. You're there. This is your work. This is your calling. This is your passion. This is your life. Right?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:38:31]:
Yes. And, thank you. Really, the the things which keep us keep going is just like this. I was telling my wife that I'm really surprised how he managed to contact Craig again, and then now we're going to have a podcast. And it's like, oh, wow. This is good. Just give us strength, even middle of this pressure of finding enough resources. Just give and saying, okay.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:38:53]:
Someone will remember sometimes and we'll contact and they'll give us hope and and we can keep dreaming and, yeah, keep going.
Craig Pollard [00:39:01]:
It's literally the least we can do. We we talk about you often, you know, and we're always in awe of of your work and just how you keep going and and just the and the just the impact and the difference you're making is so inspiring, and you're such a phenomenal example of a human being. And it's it's a great honor to call you my friend.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:39:23]:
Thank you. That's really, and then that's for me too. Yeah.
Craig Pollard [00:39:27]:
Will you run for president again?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:39:30]:
I always say that's it's not a personal ambition. If I have to choose between, if I have to choose to to to fundraise, to to have 2,000 more kids in one way and and to go to run or maybe go to focus on the kids. But I remember when I was running, one of the the friends who asked me, he said that he he had some funding to give some for food for a a country in West Africa for some kids, and they said, but I'm I'm struggling. I want to support you. I want to do this, but I don't know. And I was telling him, you know, I went through this kind of difficult situation on the streets. But, between the person who give me food, a plate of food, and I eat, and I was hungry next day, and the person who give me hope to continue and to be who I where I am today, the person who give me hope and dream have given me much than just the food I can eat, and, I'll be hungry tomorrow. It's the reason why doing all this running is to give opportunity to the young people to keep dreaming, to see that there's a possibility, to have hope.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:40:39]:
Yes. Of course, I can use the money to feed them, but they're going to be hungry tomorrow. And then if we manage to be involved in, decision making of the country, maybe we can change the situation for long term. I was invited in, in the UN, human rights, commission in Geneva. They were asking me, what do you tell us? And I was saying that's, street kids need to be respected, like, in their their conditions because in the country, like, many countries in the world, they they treat street kids like people who are creating problems to the country, but they are victims. And and people don't take care of them, and they put them in prison and all these kind of things. These kind of things you cannot change just because you are feeding the kids, because you are sending the kids to school. You have to make policies.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:41:28]:
You have to be in a position where you're making decisions. I say that, it's not personal ambition. It's not something I just wake up and say I'm going to run. But if my friends, if my people, if people around me, if we have someone better than me who can do that or if we can end up, say, is you, that's something we're going to discuss about, in the future. For the moment today, I'm struggling to be able to pay the salaries for people working and send the kids to school and pay the rent and then move the kids, who are in area where their fads are to another house. This is our main focus for the moment, and, this one's in the next maybe 1 or 3 years. Conversation will be on that, but the main thing is to be able at least to keep going. But we we did it, and we're open for it even for the next step.
Craig Pollard [00:42:18]:
And if people do want to contribute and get in touch with you, how would they do that?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:42:24]:
Yeah. That's the one of main, issue we have in terms of, mobilizing because we don't have a direct fundraising platform where you can donate to direct. We need to donate to some of the partners. We have, I think, 2 in UK, who can receive, and they they send to us.
Craig Pollard [00:42:46]:
Is that StreetAction and Amos Trust?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:42:48]:
StreetAction, Amos Trust. There's another on Blue, Outreach, also. But the main one is StreetAction. See, the main is the main one we recommend, is StreetAction. And, if there's a donation and then people say, we let them know that's that's specific for this, they're they're going to send that to us. And, yeah. But also there's some people say, yeah. We want to do direct transfers to your accounts, which we're giving you generation accounts, and they can transfer direct accounts if they don't need to go through a platform, which is there.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:43:21]:
Yeah. It's but, also, we've been trying to see how we can build our own platform in terms of of, direct fundraising because I know some people in USA who wanted to donate. But every time we give them another name of an organization, they say, no. We want to see that we are sending direct New Generation or to DNF done through another organization, and they say we can do that. With your expertise, if you can help in one way or another, to be able to build something which can help people to donate direct or support. We we want to learn from from that. But for the moment, is Retraction is the main partner now we have, received our funding.
Craig Pollard [00:44:04]:
And they've been a partner for a really long time?
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:44:07]:
Yes. And they did they managed to say that now they focus on only on us, on. They have stopped to work with the the other organizations, and, also, they invite they have invited me to be also on the board of the street action that I can be part of. Yeah. It's the reason why we say this is the main the the other main, and they don't take fees or percentage or things like that. They give it direct to us.
Craig Pollard [00:44:31]:
And they know you deeply. Right? Yes. They've they've been over. They've volunteered.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:44:35]:
Yeah.
Craig Pollard [00:44:35]:
You know, Nick and
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:44:36]:
Yeah.
Craig Pollard [00:44:37]:
And Joe, they they've been involved for a really long time, so it's brilliant. We'll make sure that that goes in the show notes as well. So if people want do want to get in touch with you Yeah. We'll share that, that detail.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:44:48]:
Thank you.
Craig Pollard [00:44:49]:
But, Dieudonné, it's always a pleasure, always incredibly humbling talking to you and hearing about how things are going and, yeah, amazing work. And thank you for everything you do and for being a a phenomenal human being. And, I know you'll continue the struggle, and I know you'll keep building this incredible New Generation in Burundi. But thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:45:14]:
Thank you. And I and I know I will your efforts also. I know you you work hard to help many people, and, I can try to do everything I tried to do in Burundi. I can circle from London to Cape Town. I can do can't make a sacrifice. I know you all you you you beyond us and others, I know you have been helping many, many people with the your sacrifice and, also your your family and involved in this. And please let this time keep in touch more than before. And, yeah, just to feel encouraged and to know that we have a friends we can talk to, that's very encouraging for us.
Craig Pollard [00:45:58]:
Anytime. Thank you so much, Dieudonné.
Dieudonné Nahimana [00:46:00]:
Thank you so much.
Craig Pollard [00:46:02]:
Thanks again to Dieudonné for sharing his story and for being so open and honest about the challenges he has faced of which fundraising seems to be relatively small, but is vital for the future of New Generation. I think this conversation stands on its own. I will be sharing some reflections on Dieudonné's and his fundraising challenges soon on the Fundraising Radicals blog. As always, if you want to find out more about us and our work, please do visit www.fundraisingradicals.com. And if you have been inspired by a New Generation story, do check out the show notes where we'll provide you with links to explore if you are interested in getting involved. But for now, thank you once again for listening, for joining our exploration of global fundraising, and we'll see you back here soon for the next episode of the Fundraising Radicals podcast.
