The majority of Burundi population is young. The average (medium) age of the entire population is 16. With the medium age of 16 and 70 % of the population below the age of  30, you have a situation where the majority of this young population is unemployed and/or completely disengaged from any constructive development work in their communities.

The consequences of this is that many of these young people are sitting around in the idleness which is leading to a rise in the rate of violence, crimes of robbery, drug addiction, prostitution, risky sexual behavior which consequently leads to higher rate of STDs, HIV and teen pregnancy.

This idleness is also increasing the vulnerability for young people to be recruited into rebel groups and their participation in those kinds of activities. So, unless this problem is solved and young people empowered to use their time more constructively, the entire country of Burundi is at risk of what might happen if more and more of these young people get lost in a world of drugs and violence and rebel activities. So, it’s an urgent problem to be solved.