PROFILE

The Association of the Burundians Community of South Australia Inc. (ABCSA) is a non profit organisation incorporated in June 2005.The first few families settled in South Australia put ideas together to start the association.
Today, the ABCSA Inc. has grown quickly and counts up to more than 800 members from about 200 Burundian families.
The main objective of the association was to help Burundian members who came mostly from refugee background to settle and integrate well in South Australian Community. The Burundians intended to develop and achieve their financial dependence as quickly as possible while maintaining their culture, values and unity.
Actually, 70% of Burundian people live in Northern councils of Adelaide City of Playford and Salisbury.  Burundian community has about 60% female members while about 55% are less than 18 years of age. The main language spoken at home is Kirundi. However, few families speak Swahili and French and also other African dialects.
At their arrival in South Australia, every Murundi over 18 years old has to attend 510 hours of English training while teenagers attend Adelaide Secondary School of English. Children go to Kindergarten and at five years old attend New Arrival Program English which help them to go to main stream program in Australian primary Schools.
At this time, the ABCSA community has about six graduates who are either employed or self-employed and more than 15 undergraduate students. The Burundian community has also more that 10 Burundians who completed Certificate IV and Diploma at TafeSA. More than 40% mostly men in the Burundians community have a full or casual work in different industries. However, Burundians are known as the best volunteers by different organisations other than Burundian community such as Migrant Resource Centre of SA, Anglicare, Families SA, Secondary and Primary schools and others.
The Burundian community has many different cultural groups dedicated to promote Burundians culture through dances such as Burundians drummers, Women cultural group dancers, Christian choirs. The community also has a soccer team ‘Eagles” which helps to gather Burundians mainly youths and parents.  

History of Burundians in South Australia

The Burundian people have been started settling in South Australia in 2004; many of them came from refugee background. In 2006, few families met together and decided to form an association of Burundian people background. The association aimed to gather all Burundians settled in South Australia with the purpose of supporting each other and providing orientation to new settlers in South Australia. The first Management board was formed, and Mr. Leonidas Nitereka was elected as a President of the Association of the Burundian Community of South Australia Inc (ABCSA).
The ABCSA has received various small grants and funds to carry out programs such as welcoming parties of New Settlers and assisting different cultural Burundian groups. The ABCSA has supported different cultural groups such as:
Men drummers started performing Burundian culture in South Australia in 2007. They made a difference from diverse cultural groups in SA in integrating Burundian culture among other Australian cultures. Now, Burundians are well known through its drums.
Burundian Women dancer’s Group has started performing in 2006.The purpose of the Burundian Women Dancer's group is to keep Burundian culture alive and showcase Burundian heritage to the wider community in order to contribute to the Australian multicultural society.
The Burundian Eagles Soccer Club South Australia started three years ago in 2006. The purpose of the club is to be at the top and light of the world and to promote Burundian soccer in Australia.
Northern Refugee United Social Club of SA (NRUSC) started promoting the sport of soccer in 2009.The club promotes and encourages broader African refugee background communities to share stories after soccer and other sport activities and also encourage children and youths to participate in recreational/social activities.

Agasimbo group aims to improve fitness of the Burundian youths and to maintain Burundian culture through traditional dance.

The 2009 year was characterized by a growth of the ABCSA under new management board. Muhama Yotham was elected as a president of the ABCSA with other seven members. The ABCSA Inc received small donations to run events and community meetings. Those small donations helped the community to organize a cultural independence event. The event has connected the community to others organizations and communities such as the City of Playford, Salsibury, ARA, Multicultural and other different Australian organizations.
In the same year, the ABCSA Inc opened its office in Davoren Park. The office was funded by Lutheran Community Care SA which provided office materials and volunteers support. The ABCSA got a grant from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to be empowered in self-governance and become an independent organization. The grant will help the ABCSA Inc to provide services to the Burundian community. The ABCSA has now two employed workers and more than 30 volunteers.
In the project of empowering the ABCSA Inc, the Vietnamese Community in South Australia Chapter is currently mentoring the ABCSA to reach its potentiality in community management. The ABCSA got also small grants to assist better volunteers and to prepare the current event of cultural independent day in July 2010.

Our Values

We strongly believe in upholding the following values when conducting our work:
Respect: We believe that our clients deserve the utmost as persons, regardless of their belief, customs, physical, mental or legal situation.
Social justice: We believe that everyone is equal; our core business is to assist the most disadvantaged people in our community
United: We endeavour to uphold the united spirit in our community in achieving the organisation’s vision.
Integrity: We value honesty, and we will conduct ourselves with the highest ethical standards
Partnership & Teamwork: We believe that the best outcome for our clients and our workers are achieved through teamwork among our workers and with other agencies.

Our Mission is to serve the interests of all Burundians in South Australia with the aim of building united and vibrant community that can make a positive contribution to our multicultural society.
Our Vision:

We, the Association of Burundian Community of South Australia, seek to be known as an independent organisation. We aim to: