Bukoba, Tanzania - Conferences in schools, towards a movement of Youth for Peace

The communities of Sant’Egidio of Tanzania intend to live out the commitment to which the entire movement present in the states of Eastern Africa has been called to by the recent

meeting in Bujumbura in Burundi as explained in the www.santegidio.org website. It is the commitment to continue to go forward on themes of prayer, the poor and peace, the commitment to transmit to the younger generations a different sensitivity with respect to the weaker sectors of society (elderly and children) and to build in the continent a Christian humanism made of culture and compassion. 

A series of conferences to introduce Sant’Egidio and its work have taken place over the past few days in various Tanzanian cities, in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and especially in Kagera, the region that has Bukoba as its capital and that neighbors Rwanda and Burundi. Hundreds of secondary school students, from public and private schools, were able to listen to a proposal of

a Gospel of fraternity and service, attentive to the needs of the poor, open to broader horizons than the usual ones. In an atmosphere of keen attention, they asked questions addressing the concrete dimension of the context in which they live as well as the broader scenarios confronted by Sant’Egidio.

The hope is that a network of communities in secondary schools can be born out of these meetings, a Tanzanian “Youth for Peace”, a “Vijana kwa Amani” (in Swahili), that could join the movements that already exist in many African countries, in particular in Malawi, in the Ivory Coast, in Rwanda, in Mozambique.  

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - BRAVO! workshop: “Help me to exist!”

The Community of Sant’Egidio launched some years ago a global programme named BRAVO! (Birth Registration for All versus Oblivion!) in order to facilitate the registration of children in the developing countries. According to UNICEF estimations the number of unregistered children every year is close to 50 million (2007). Sant’Egidio works with the concerned Government ministries and departments, assisting them in building capacity of the civil registration systems and creating awareness among parents and children, adopting a balanced approach between service provider (Government) and the beneficiaries.

As we can read in Sant’Egidio and BRAVO! websites, (www.santegidio.org and www.bambini-invisibili.org) birth registration is remarkably placed in the everyday life of a person; it gives rights; it protects people. Unregistered children are more vulnerable than others: the likelihood of trafficking of these children, and abuses of different kinds - ranging from sexual abuse, engagement in armed conflicts to labour and early age marriage, etc - is higher than of those registered at birth. It is thus rightly considered as an effective means of child protection.

One of the countries where the program is more active is Burkina Faso. In that country the collaboration between Sant'Egidio and public institutions has proved particularly effective, and

two million people have been registered in recent years. That's why in Ouagadougou, the capital city, was held in July the 4th BRAVO! Training Course “Aide à moi exister!”, “Help me to exist”, a formation period for registration operators among civil servants. Over 350 of them took part in the training, presidents and vice-presidents of the district courts, qualified representatives of local health services and maternity, employees in registration offices, etc..

Ceuta, Spain - The closeness of the communities of Sant’Egidio to the asylum seekers of the Holding Center

Ceuta and Melilla are two small Spanish towns in Africa, surrounded by Moroccan territory. These are the only outposts of the European Union in Africa and thousands of men and women of all ages head there in search of an opening in the frontier that separates the wealthy world of

the North from the wretched landscape of the South.

Europe, so close yet so distant. For years now there have been repeated en masse attempts to break in. In the last such attempts, just a few days ago, many refugees and migrants were brutally hit, according to various witnesses, by Moroccan police, while their Spanish colleagues stood by. The Madrid government has put in place metal fences and various other systems to dissuade or repel the assaults of those who hope to find dignity, freedom and security under a new sky. Ceuta and Melilla are another wall of our apparently global - but often pieced up - world village, as witnessed by the border between the United States and Mexico, the barbed wire system separating Greece and Turkey and many others ....

The border at Ceuta is a place of suffering for many. In January, a Spanish delegation of the Community of Sant’Egidio visited the CETI (Temporary Holding Center for Immigrants) in the Tangiers area, in Morocco, along the barrier that surrounds Ceuta. The CETI of Ceuta houses more than 500 asylum seekers

from sub-Saharan countries. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about the conditions of the many who attempt to enter Europe and of the few who succeed.

The bond established with the guests of the CETI must not be broken because, as is written in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 25, “I was a stranger and you invited me in, a prisoner and you came to visit me”. On June 21st a few members of the Community of Madrid organized another visit and a get together with the asylum seekers of the CETI.