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| Pierre |
When the weapons are silent: peace appears, hope whispers, and dreams sprout
A full week, full of many little sparks of hope.
On
Sunday I went to celebrate Mass in Samba Bougoulou, an interestinf name
for a long village. I concluded the celebration with the blessing of
the village elementary school. Last year we finished with 56 students,
and now there are more than 200!
Before Mass, they brought me a
baby just over a year old (we'll call him Pierre, but it's not his real
name). I took him in my arms, because he was crying, and I blessed him:
his mother died a few days ago, and his father is seriously ill. As I
prayed, and tried to think about what to do to help him, I felt some
warmth ... When I returned the baby, I noticed that he had peed...
Monday,
October 18th was the day of the "official" inauguration of the school
year. Although many of our schools have been open for weeks, this was
the day the government chose to be the official start. Educational
leaders from all over the region came to Baoro, as well as teachers and
pupils, for a celebration and various festivities. There was even an old
soldier playing the trumpet!
Wednesday I went to Bouar, and from
there, together with the Bishop, we set off towards the North. It is a
very difficult area, the scene, for years, of clashes and tensions. The
rebels moved there a few months ago, pushed by the Central African and
Russian military. The villages near the border with Cameroon and Chad
(between Niem, Bocaranga, Koui, Ndim and Ngaundaye) are under tension.
Many people cannot go to the camps, threatened by the rebels or the
Russians. There are killings, looting, violence of all kinds and many
inhabitants have had to flee, thus increasing the already high number of
refugees and internal refugees. Just recently, I received data from the
UN, which indicated over 1,437,000 refugees (internal and foreign): a
quarter of the population of Central Africa!
We arrive in
Bocaranga (210 km from Baoro), where we met the Capuchin fathers. The
situation is difficult, and we tried to reflect together on what to do.
Some
UN agencies, along with NGOs, are trying to help. Unfortunately they
often cannot come to the area, because it is too dangerous.
Thursday
morning we left for Koui - Degaulle, a village about forty kilometers
from Bocaranga. Here we met the Christian community, the sultan (!), The
deputy prefect and the mayor. But, above all, we rejoiced because the
school was open! Despite the various rebels and soldiers looting it
(using the benches as firewood!), the teachers and parents had the
courage to open the school.
In the various meetings with the people who live, suffer and try to have hope in these parts of the country, we want to understand what needs we can try to answer.
We are planning to commit ourselves to the schools of the region. The teachers are almost all (more than 93%) volunteers, helped (very little) by the parents. To encourage them to stay in the villages and reopen their schools, we plan to give them a small monthly stipend (between 15 and 20 euros), which will allow them to have a small economic base, and to distribute school materials to pupils.
There are so many! There are about 250 teachers in the region, and between 13 and 15 thousand pupils.
But Providence is great!
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| Scuola Materna "Il Germoglio" Ecole Maternelle "Il Germoglio" |
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| Bohong |
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| Bocaranga |
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| Degaulle |
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| Alunne Des élèves |
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| Scuola elementare a Degaulle Ecole primaire à Degaulle |
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| C'erano i banchi, un anno fa! Il y a 1 an, il y avait les tables bancs! |
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