- ATD Fourth World

They come from different areas of the town of Bangui or its surrounding villages. For just over a year now, they have been getting together to quench the children from their neighbourhood’s thirst for learning and to create friendship between the children.

For the past few months, one of them has been running a group called Tapori: “In my neighbourhood, we bring together children of different ethnic origins, religions and backgrounds. There are parents who have attacked me, blaming me for perverting their children. I told them that on the contrary, I was trying to put their children on the right path. Now, even the parents themselves think about it. They see their children coming together, and they say that they themselves can also be together.”

Another told how he took home seven children that he had met on the street. He took them as his younger brothers, gave them advice, and promised to give them a little job. “Today, one of them has a business. Each time that he sees me passing by, he calls to me. He says nothing else. He calls to me. It’s his way of saying thanks.” This young man added that since he has been involved in running the street library, there has been no end to the silly questions: People see me with the whites and they think that I am earning money. But we are searching for a way round this obstacle.”

Another young man from the group explained how he started a school for children living along the river on Bongo Soa Island. “This is a part of the capital, but it has been abandoned: there are no schools, no hospitals, … nothing.” He had the opportunity to find a job in a school in Bangui. But he passed it up so he could continue doing what he had started doing with the children, who are cut off from everything.

During an encounter, one of the young women thanked the ATD Fourth World Movement, because, according to her, “it is not a Movement that creates division. It tries to bring everyone together, regardless of whether you are rich or poor. If you are slim or fat, big or small, the Movement accepts you.”

At a time when the ATD Fourth World Movement has chosen supporting youth commitments as one of its five ambitions, the project in Bangui opens a very exciting the path. “I have taken this commitment as a responsibility. Even if there are difficulties, I am the one who got myself involved.” The Movement’s responsibility to support these youths is deeply rooted in what their elders have passed on to them: “the movement has helped me to help my country”, one of the elders told them, because “the permanent volunteers have made me understand the importance of sharing my knowledge with those who have less. “And this sharing, this transmission of knowledge, helps to put the children on the right path. It is its way of helping the country. A country with a thirst for learning. “Our country is rich in natural resources, but it is poor, because there is no work in the country, and young people are suffering.”

Becoming a servant of your community is a long process. But, the youths of Bangui and its environs are very sturdy.