Jean-Marie Nkurunziza

MenCare Regional Program Specialist

Jean-Marie Nkurunziza

Jean-Marie Nkurunziza is a Burundian who started working for Sonke Gender Justice as a volunteer in 2007. He is now the MenCare Regional Programme Specialist. He is committed to promoting gender equality, stopping gender-based violence, spreading HIV/AIDS awareness and improving men’s participation in care work, caregiving, and gender equitable parenting in his community and around the world.

After completing a Diploma in Arts, he studied Social Sciences at the University of Burundi, Honors Degree at Stellenbosch University, master’s degree at university of the western Cape. His training includes Gender Equality, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Gender Media, Political Economy, and a Diploma in Project Management and Counselling. Jean-Marie is currently a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University.

Jean-Marie’s involvement in activism started in 1999 when he joined the Burundi Red Cross youth group as a volunteer. After his studies he co-founded the Christian Ministries of Volunteers Evangelic in the World (CMVEW) where he was the Community Coordinator and Counsellor in HIV/AIDS. He started working with refugees and migrants in South Africa with Jubilee South Africa and later the Bienvenue Shelter in Johannesburg. He is fluent in French, Kirundi, Swahili and English and worked with the Refugees and Migrants Community through the Refugee Health and Rights (RHR) Project from 2007-2013 then with the MenCare fatherhood campaign in African region to date.

Jean-Marie now works with parents and young men under the MenCare program, which focuses on fatherhood campaign, gender equality, gender-based violence prevention and caregiving.