The Need

Burundi is one of the poorest nations in the world. More than 70% of the population lives in poverty, and inflation and currency instability have made the basic cost of living rise faster than most salaries. This affects everyone, but it hits the health system especially hard. The country’s hospitals are under-resourced, especially outside the capital. In some provinces, a single doctor may be responsible for more than 100,000 people, often working with limited medicines, unreliable power, shortages of oxygen, and no backup staff.

At the same time, Burundi faces a severe ‘medical brain drain.’ Highly trained Burundian doctors, nurses, and other health professionals are leaving the country — or choosing not to return after training — because of extremely low salaries, poor working conditions, and lack of long-term support for their families. The World Health Organization has warned that nearly 80% of African countries are already experiencing critical shortages of health staff, and the continent as a whole is projected to face a shortfall of millions of health professionals by 2030.

Our Biblical Mandate

Imuhira Mission believes that the call to heal the sick is not optional for the Body of Christ; it is part of our witness to the Gospel. Scripture teaches that “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest… to send out workers into His harvest field” (Luke 10:2). We believe that Burundi is such a harvest field — physically, socially, and spiritually. When a community has one doctor for 100,000 people, that is not just a systems problem. It is a discipleship problem, a justice problem, and a Gospel problem.

Our Response

One of the core ministries of Imuhira Mission is to identify, equip, and sustain Burundian Christian healthcare workers who are willing to serve in Burundi — especially in under-served, rural, and training-focused settings — but who are blocked by financial, logistical, or family constraints.

Imuhira Mission does this in three main ways:

1. Strategic Financial Support — We mobilize funding for Christian clinicians who are ready to return and serve but cannot do so because there is no realistic salary structure, housing, or school plan for their children.
2. Partnership Placement and Mission Covering — We connect Burundian healthcare workers to global partners — mission agencies, churches, and foundations — who can stand behind them as missionaries, not just employees. Imuhira Mission adapts this same model to the Burundian reality: instead of helping a Western doctor go abroad, we help a Burundian doctor come home.
3. Long-Term Sustainability and Training — We prioritize clinicians who are not only willing to treat patients, but also to teach, disciple, and mentor young healthcare workers in Christ-centered, patient-centered care.

A Living Example: The Kibimba Mission Hospital Project

Dr. Boaz Niyinyumva, a Family Physician and missionary under World Gospel Mission (WGM), embodies the vision of Imuhira Mission. After completing medical training in Kenya and serving as the Family Medicine Program Coordinator at AIC Litein Mission Hospital, he and his wife, Africa, have been preparing to return to Burundi to serve at Kibimba Hospital — a once-thriving mission hospital that has lacked long-term missionaries since the 1970s.

Together with WGM, Dr. Boaz is working to help restore Kibimba into a teaching and referral mission hospital. They are spearheading a multi-year project to establish the first Family Medicine Department and to build missionary housing that will accommodate local and international Christian doctors. Their transition to Burundi at the end of 2025 or early 2026 represents exactly what Imuhira Mission seeks to enable — the return of skilled, mission-minded Burundian doctors to their homeland.

The Kibimba initiative serves as a model for how Imuhira Mission envisions supporting Burundian healthcare professionals who desire to serve. Through financial partnerships, strategic mentorship, and spiritual support, Imuhira Mission helps create the conditions for returning doctors to thrive and multiply their impact through training and discipleship.

Why This Matters

Partnering with Imuhira Mission allows churches, Christian networks, and donors to invest in a model that is local, sustainable, holistic, and multiplying. Supporting Burundian Christian healthcare workers is more than an act of charity — it is an investment in national Christian leadership for health and discipleship. Every supported clinician becomes a teacher, mentor, and witness to the Gospel of Christ in action.

Imuhira Mission stands as a bridge between those who are willing to serve and those who are willing to send, ensuring that trained Christian doctors can come back home to strengthen Burundi’s healthcare system and bear witness to God’s love through compassionate care.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” (Luke 10:2)

Imuhira Mission is committed to answering that call — mobilizing, equipping, and sending Burundian Christian healthcare workers back home to heal their nation in Jesus’ name.