Burundi - Adrien and Alexis

Search for Common Ground met Alexis and Adrien in 1995, while seeking a way to prevent the kind of genocidal killing that took the lives of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus in neighboring Rwanda from happening in Burundi

Adrien was the only Hutu in his university to graduate. He happened to be sick the day that soldiers came to the campus and killed every Hutu student. He is intelligent and intense, and while he enjoyed his new career as an English professor, he hoped to do something greater - to break the cycle of violence in his country.

As a young Tutsi boy, Alexis was always angering his teachers by asking questions and challenging everything they tried to teach him. Early on, he knew he wanted to be a journalist. He enjoyed investigating the wrongs around him and exposing truth. He believed that the best way to combat ethnic killing in Burundi was to provide reliable information to people - to counter the rumors that politicians and elites used to manipulate the population. Alexis had previously established an independent newspaper in Burundi. After receiving death threats he fled to Rwanda. In 1995, he had just returned home after a year in exile.

When asked what could be done in Burundi to prevent genocide and promote ethnic cooperation, Alexis and Adrien responded in one voice: independent, reliable radio. Few Burundians can read and even fewer have televisions. Radio is a lifeline, and the only means of reaching Burundians en masse.

Search for Common Ground provided the funding, the technical support, and most importantly, the safe space for them to establish Studio Ijambo, Burundi's first independent radio outlet and one of the first organizations in the country to employ Hutus and Tutsis working together. Now, seven years later, international diplomats, donors, government officials and Burundians throughout the country have credited Studio Ijambo with changing the dynamic of inter-ethnic relations in Burundi. Its programs are the most popular in the country, its journalists have won international awards for bravery, and it has started a media trend - there are now five independent radio stations in Burundi.

Studio Ijambo now employs 50 Burundians and Adrien serves as the Deputy Director. Alexis won a fellowship to Harvard for his groundbreaking journalism and returned to Burundi three years ago to open his own radio station. His dream is to make it the first of a network of stations throughout Africa promoting peace and preventing war. Together, they represent a new hope for Burundi - one of inter-ethnic cooperation and self-empowerment.