Fiona Bruce MP further develops annual aid mission to Africa
Fiona Bruce MP has led her annual aid mission to Africa during part of her Parliamentary recess time, this year to Burundi, the eighth poorest country in the world. Fiona led a team of 8 volunteers including local Congleton Accountant, Adrian Veale and expanded the project to include two new elements – English teaching for the hospitality industry, and football coaching, in addition to the business training project, devised by Fiona, and now in its fifth year in Africa with over 1000 businesses benefiting from it over those years in both Rwanda and Burundi.
Fiona said “When we first went to Burundi, meeting with Government Ministers there identified the need to help improve English spoken in the tourism, hotel and hospitality industry in Burundi. It is a beautiful country, yet little visited by tourists, and improving English as spoken by those working in this area will help build tourism and, through that, much needed inward investment into the fragile economy of this desperately poor country. So we embarked on a new course this year teaching young people working in the hospitality sector to improve their English to enable them to meet, greet and welcome visitors.
Needless to say, I did not undertake the football coaching personally! – but did arrange for an FA coach, Andy Harris, to travel over voluntarily during our week to give football training to hundreds of school children including some from the orphanage which our aid mission supports. Whilst the business training and English teaching are extremely popular, the FA coach was positively mobbed – so much so that 60 youngsters were waiting for him eager to start training even as he stepped off the plane. He started training within minutes of arriving in Burundi!”
Fiona and local Accountant Adrian Veale, both East Cheshire Chamber of Commerce members, led a week long Business Development course in Burundi at the Bujumbura Chamber of Commerce, which, following last year’s visit is now partnered with East Cheshire Chamber. Burundi men and women who attended the course run businesses ranging from transport, mining construction and agriculture to tailoring, restaurants, and printing, and are members of the Bujumbura Chamber. Course content included business goal setting, marketing and financial and people management. 
Fiona added:
"Business training is a great way to help some of the poorest countries on earth -many of us know the expression "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach him how to fish and you feed him for life." The aim of this week long .course is to go one step further -to help train people to start and run businesses well -that way they can create jobs and feed a whole community.”
One of the course delegates, a Burundi businessman with a transport and construction business, Ezekial Nyabenda, said “Thank you so much for the course. Because of it I am able to respond about my financial status to investors and have the knowledge to make a business plan and split my accounts to different activities!”
