BTC'S FOUNDER

Egide Nimubona

Egide is a native of Burundi, a longtime resident of Wisconsin, a naturalized U.S. citizen, a teacher, an engineer and a refugee. He fled Burundi in the 1990s during the atrocities of the country’s civil war. He was welcomed to Canada and the United States where he found professional success as an engineer and consultant. Egide lives with his wife in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he is a mechanical engineering instructor at a local technical college.

Like most children of Burundi, Egide was born and raised in a family that survived on subsistence farming. His parents made huge sacrifices to give their seven children an education, selling farm produce, an old cow or a young bull. But they often had to also borrow money to pay for school. Sometimes the Catholic missionaries who ran the schools would reduce tuition or waive fees for the family. Egide is forever grateful to his parents, his community and the missionaries who supported and guided him and gave him the gift of an education. He founded the Burundi Education Fund/Beyond the Camp to give back to the children of his homeland and as an expression of gratitude. He is convinced that education can break the cycle of poverty for these children, their families and their communities.