Village Angels: Johanna Burani

Through Village Angels, alumna Johanna Burani helps safeguard the dignity of elderly Tanzanians until death.

By Beth Eberth – Director of University Communications at St. Bonaventure University

At St. Bonaventure, we remain as passionate as ever about our Franciscan tradition and the opportunity it provides to offer a transformational experience for our students. That transcends to so many of our alumni who nourish and share that passion throughout their lives. Johanna (LaRosa) Burani, Class of 1969, and Anthony Mancini and Dan Maurer, both Class of 2009, may have graduated 40 years apart, but they are connected spiritually by a deep-held sense of purpose and concern for others.

Amani na salama.
Johanna (LaRosa) Burani is not fluent in Swahili, but “peace and all good” is one of the first phrases the 1969 alumna learned to say in the language.

For the past three years, Burani has helped run The Village Angels of Tanzania, a humanitarian program located in Benaco, which is in the northwestern part of the African country on the border with Rwanda. The Village Angels was founded in 2015 by the Franciscan Sisters of Bernadette.

Burani, who lives in Morristown, N.J., just returned in June from her annual three-week visit to The Village Angels’ headquarters and farm, where she was able to visit with the elderly in the program and evaluate their nutritional status.

The Village Angels aids two underserved populations in the Ngara region — the abandoned elderly poor and the local at-risk young people. Unemployed young people are recruited and trained to help care for the elderly by taking them food once a week, providing companionship, and aiding with household tasks.

Seventy poor elderly people and 16 young people from two nearby villages are assisted by the organization.

As is the case in African countries, families in Tanzania are multi-generational with three generations living together. But many of the elderly living in this remote and desolate region are outliers, Burani explained: They have lived beyond the median expected age of 67 (the oldest is 102), and they do not have family who live nearby.

“They have no one to help them. They are completely on their own. They have no family, or, if they do, they are so destitute they can’t help them,” Burani said.

A Missing Generation
To understand the situation facing the elderly in this region you have to go back more than two decades. In 1994, in response to the genocide in neighboring Rwanda, the Tanzanian president opened up a small portion of the border to let refugees enter the country.

At the time, some 130,000 Tanzanians lived scattered across the area known as the Ngara District. There is no water, no electricity, and no animals for those who live in this barren and inhospitable region. Some 530,000 refugees crossed the border from Rwanda, fleeing the massacres in their homeland. The United Nations also came to Tanzania to help with the crisis. By the time the UN left eight years later, the already barren land and strained culture were decimated.

“Under the pressure, that middle generation, the adult children, had that horrible decision to make: to take their kids and flee or stay with their parents,” said Burani.

Many of them fled to Uganda and Kenya.

“That left these elderly people really unprepared for what was ahead for them,” she said.
There are no social services. The elderly live in mud huts in a banana tree ecosystem.
“The Village Angels can’t change that. But what it can do is feed them and make them feel better physically and emotionally,” Burani said.

The attention from the young people will enable the older residents to be cared for and die with dignity. For the youths, it will decrease the chance they will wind up in prostitution or drug trafficking.

Without infrastructure and employment in the region, there are not many opportunities for younger generations. In addition to giving the young people a stipend to care for the elderly, The Village Angels is trying to teach them skills, including animal husbandry, sewing and beekeeping. They are already seeing success, Burani said.

“One of the girls that started with us three years ago just wanted to learn how to sew. She could not wait,” Burani said. The young woman’s brother bought her a sewing machine and she was able to find work as a seamstress.

As a registered dietitian, Burani monitors the progress of the food program for the elders. During her visits to Tanzania she takes their body measurements, then evaluates and interprets the data to assess their progress. In 2017, 31 percent of the elderly were undernourished based on World Health Organization standards. This year, that number dropped to 17 percent. Fifty-eight percent have gained weight during the past year.
“This is a direct result of an enhanced food program we put in place at the end of our 2017 visit. However, there is still major work to be done nutritionally,” she cautioned. The majority of the elders have depleted fat stores, a serious risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the elderly. So before returning home in June, there was another upgrade to the food program to add quality protein and fat to the weekly food deliveries.

“I’m encouraged that we are on the right track. Many of our elders are visibly stronger and more energetic,” she said.

History of Angels
Although The Village Angels of Tanzania was just established in 2015, Burani’s friendship with its founder Sr. Dativa Mukebita, F.S.S.B., goes back some 15 years.

Burani met the Franciscan sister when she took a computer class near her home at Assumption College for Sisters, where Sr. Dativa was beginning her studies in the states.

Sr. Dativa would go on to earn associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the U.S. before entering the healthcare field, and the women would develop a fast friendship.

Burani and her husband, Sergio, were among the first people Sr. Dativa contacted when she conceived the idea for Village of Angels in her homeland. The Buranis have been in from Day 1, assisting with fundraising and publicity for the organization.

As a self-described low-maintenance person, Burani said she has no limits when it comes to begging for the poor.

“Everyone really responds as they can. It is amazing. I find all you have to do is ask. They know 100 percent goes to The Village Angels. The sum is greater than the parts. It just grows,” she said.

The same may be said of her Bonaventure roots.

“Maybe it’s because SBU is a special space. Maybe it’s because young people attracted to attend SBU are special people. Maybe it’s the front-and-center theme of selflessness that permeates the very air on campus and the formal and informal student/professor conversations. Maybe it’s all these qualities of the Bona experience that keep us uniquely attached as brothers and sisters,” she said.

A biology major at St. Bonaventure, Burani recalls the first class field trip she took with beloved botany professor Dr. Alfred Finocchio.

“He opened a whole new world of awe at the reflection — no, the presence — of God in nature to this city girl. And that was just the first semester of my freshman year,” she said.

“The awareness of God’s presence in all of his creation is alive and well in me today, more than 50 years later in the eyes of the Swahili-speaking Village Angels in northwestern Tanzania, whom I call my brothers and sisters.”

Further proof came last year during her visit to Tanzania. Burani was walking to the church for Mass alongside a sister named Justina and remarked how well her companion spoke English. Sr. Justina shared that she had learned the language during time in the states and as a student at a small Franciscan university in Western New York.

The religious woman was Sr. Justina Ekibenda, who earned a degree in journalism and mass communication in 2013 from Bona’s.

“We’re in this little town and she and I have a sisterhood of our own. I was so awestruck. It’s just another sign that I’m doing what I should be doing,” Burani said.

For more information about The Village Angels, visit thevillageangels-tanzania.org or on social media @TheVillageAngels