Our Scholarship Programme

To contribute to a sustainable improvement of the situation of the society in Burundi the scholarship programme is referes to already existing SOG programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With the aid of individual financial support for school graduates in need they will be able to take advantage of a local university education and increase their capacity to realise their own projects. An important part of the scholarship programme is thus the realisation of a self-dependant and developed project by the scholars after they have graduated.

Goals of the programme

The programme’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of school graduates so they can sustainably improve the situation of the society.

• The scholars act as agents for change. They are the ones to identify imbalances in their social surroundings. With the description of the programme as part of the application process the scholars demonstrate that they see a subjective discrepancy between demand and reality and are willing to close it, already in advance. The following higher education communicates the necessary expertise the scholars need.
• With the realisation of the project and a sustainable execution in their society, the scholars break with old habits and introduce new ways of changing and shaping social conditions. This is how scholars initiate further social changes. Thus, they are becoming multiplicators for social changes.

• Demands

  Essential to the award of our scholarship including cost of living until the graduation of the first and/ or second academic degree (B.A./ M.A.) is the criteria of indigence. Thus, the scholarship programme wants to support school graduates who couldn’t have taken advantage of a higher education without external financial support.

  The applicants can apply for a scholarship for any offered course of study at Burundian universities, independent from higher costs at private universities. The scholarship project considers both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science as eligible.

  The scholar’s project is already part of the application process which means that it has to be on hand before a possible financial support and it plays an essential role in the award of the scholarship. The applicants are free in the decision whether they want to realise their project during their studies or if it follows after their graduation as a consequence of their degree. Additional to the social project the scholars get involved in voluntary work for two hours per week in Bujumbura or its surroundings. The scholars are also free in the subject of their project and the voluntary work. They should rather determine their social commitment for themselves. Preferable is only a reference to the course of study they strive for. In every case the project must be realised self dependently to ensure ownership of the scholars for the effect it has on social changes.

• Type of Support

  SOG restricts itself in the support of the project to support the project conception and contact communication. If there are funds necessary to realise the project, SOG nearly exclusively supports in the frame of ideational options of the scholarship programme. This only happens in exceptional cases which means in case there are costs due which were unpredictable before the project’s realisation and can’t be paid by the scholar. There should not be a dependence of the project from the scholarship programme, particularly because that would contradict the idea of sustainability.