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In its attributions, SYM is committed to make pleadings for its beneficiaries in order to guarantee them a better living environment. That regulation is made possible mainly through discussion groups and home visits. It is these exchanges that reveal the crucial needs of the beneficiaries. Thus, faced with the problem of lack of housing, SYM approached SELAVIP (Latin American, African and Asian Social Housing Service) to set up a project to build 25 houses for PLWHIV in the slums of Bujumbura.

According to Father Védaste NKESHIMANA S.J, Executive Director of SYM, the project comes at the right time because poverty, which is the common denominator, pushes vulnerable PLWHIV into promiscuity. In order to encourage them to get up, SYM has made sure that these PLWHIV can put their hands to work, each according to their means and personal commitment. Some of them contributed to the project by making their land available to SYM to build a new house; others collected or manufactured local construction materials; others were involved in the construction sites as supervisors or simple workers. The idea of involving them in this project gives them a sense of pride for having contributed to their new beginning; a psychological impact that extends to the taking of medication. Indeed, SYM has already noticed that by supporting these beneficiaries, viral load results become satisfactory, demonstrating a regularity in the taking of medication leading to a healthy life, a source of sustainable development.

Mr. Joseph and his family had suffered from lack of space in their home. The parents' intimacy with their children could be summed up in the traditional expression "vyumvuhore"; the same room that served as a living room and dining room was at the same time a bedroom for both boys and girls. "In our family, we were very happy to hear that SYM was going to build a house for us and everyone started dancing. Even our children will be able to have enough space to sleep," they testified.

SYM intends to continue providing assistance to PLWHIV in several areas, especially since they are real collaborators involved in screening and therapeutic education of their peers for adherence to ARV treatment. In fact, with the particularity of SYM thanks to the mobile clinic strategy, it is these already registered beneficiaries who help identify new ones. In addition, when this or that other person finds himself in difficulty, an illness for example, it is his neighborhood, beneficiary of the SYM, who alerts the SYM to go and help.

In conclusion, the project for the construction of these houses has an important role in the care of SYM beneficiaries, either from a therapeutic point of view (physical and psychic), or at the level of prevention because it is these beneficiaries who participate in the identification of other people living with HIV but who do not know their serological status. They also help SYM health mediators in the search for those lost to follow-up and abandonment within the community.