“If it weren’t for Don
Bosco, we’d already be dead.”
Displaced children in
Goma thank the Salesians for their help
(ANS – Goma, DRC – March 20, 2024) – As part of his extraordinary visitation
to the province of Central Africa (AFC), Fr. Alphonse Owoudou, regional councilor
for Africa, recently traveled among Salesian works in the eastern part of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, in the area of Goma. That area has been the scene
of armed clashes between the army and some rebel formations for several months
now. In this context of great suffering for the local population, Fr. Owoudou
has once again renewed the Salesian commitment to accompany and to give hope
and spiritual and human support to all those in need, and has received intense
testimonies of how all the work done by the Salesians in this land really does
make the difference between life and death for many people.
Fr. Owoudou spent four full days, between March
15-18, visiting the Don Bosco work in Ngangi, the 2d work of the AFC East Delegation in institutional terms – after ITIG, also in Goma, which is the delegation’s
headquarters – but the one that is pastorally the most important, because it is
so rich in apostolic works: a care center for children in difficulty, the vocational
training center which also has a detachment for agricultural training, the
primary school, youth center, a boarding school for the poorest youngsters, and
even a small chapel.
In addition to all the activities, the Ngangi center
is also a beautiful testimony of collaboration between different religious
groups, all committed to the good of the population served. The Salesians of
Don Bosco, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the Salvatorian
Sisters reside at the center, and all the communities take care of their
respective recipients, in communion of intent, in harmony with each other, but
also respecting their specific charisms.
Until a few weeks ago, the Don Bosco Shasha
presence in Ngangi was also dependent on the work, where the agrarian training
courses took place, and where thousands of people who had fled from the battle
zones had already taken refuge because of the clashes in the area. Since
mid-February, however, rebel militias have reached there, and both the
displaced people and the 3 Salesians working there have had to abandon their
homes and continue their journey as displaced persons.
“There are now about 26,000 people in Goma,
including many minors who have come from all the surrounding areas,” says Fr.
Owoudou. “Some are up to 12 years old; the youngest, whom I saw the day before
yesterday, is 5 days old, and his mother died during childbirth.”
“To the youngest, the Salesians distribute a
gruel made of maize, soy, and sorghum, which is a real lifesaver for many of
them. In addition, thanks to an aid project strongly desired and supported by
the Rector Major, through the Don Bosco Mission office in Bonn, basic
necessities for survival are delivered monthly to each family: a 10 kg packet
of beans, a sack of flour, soap, 1.5 liters of oil and medicines," the regional
councilor said.
“We were all but dead, but thanks to your
confreres, we now have our lives assured, even if uncertainty remains because
we don’t know how long the armed conflict will last,” a mother testified
to Fr. Owoudou, after seeing her son begin running again after days of when he
nearly died of starvation.
“I saw before my eyes so many children running
again, happy, beautiful, full of hope, probably also because they were unaware
of the nightmare their parents were going through,” the Salesian priest commented.
And during the welcome greeting at the work,
one of the center’s young guests read a message for Fr. Owoudou prepared by the
children themselves, in which he said: “Reverend Father, your presence here is
a sign of love, a ray of sunshine and hope. We, the young people who have been
victims of wars which have changed our condition forever, turning us into
children separated from our families, we are now marginalized and are called ‘mai
bobo’ [street children, abandoned, ed.].... If it weren’t for Don Bosco,
we’d already be dead. Here, then, is a good opportunity to thank you, Salesians
of Don Bosco, for your love and support toward us young people in difficult
situations.”
Speaking of his visit to the center in Ngangi,
Fr. Owoudou concludes: “So many mothers, so many people have told me when I
return to Italy to thank Don Bosco for all the help.... Perhaps they wanted to
say thank you to the Rector Major, or perhaps some believed that Don Bosco is
still alive today. Certainly, Don Bosco is alive in the Salesians who have
remained with the people in all circumstances: in the suffering in the fields,
in the flight from the war.... It seems to me this is what the Rector Major
calls the ‘Salesian sacrament of presence.’”
