Focolare Worldwide - Movimento dei Focolari

Burundi, Small Heart of Africa

4 Mar 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

Burundi is a small country, situated between two giant nations: the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Republic of Tanzania. It is endowed with a landscape of extraordinary richness and beauty, and yet it is one of the poorest countries on the planet. It is home to three peoples: Hutu, Tutsi and Pigmies who share the same language and culture. It’s green hills hide the suffering cries of many how came to know violence and death during long decades of conflict and dictatorship. It was only in 2002 that Burundi emerged from a political and ethnic conflict that displaced a million and brought death to 300 thousand others. The Ideal of the Focolare Movement has also reached this place in the heart of Africa, only a few kilometers south of the Equator. Its roots go back to 1968, when a Belgian family moved to Bujumbura to find work and through the witness of their life, shed new light on the Christian message. Almost contemporaneously, another cell was formed around Fr Alberton from the African Missionaries, at the parish church in Mubimbi. 1979 was an important year in the history of the Focolare in this nation. At the request of the local bishops, a focolare was opened in Gitega, but following the first persecutions, the focolare made an emergency move to Bujumbura. This was the beginning of a particularly difficult period for the Movement and for the entire Church: total prohibition on holding any type of activities; churches closed during the week; the impossibility of spreading the Word of Life. In September 1987, with the coup, freedom was returned and it was possible to come out into the open. Little by little, people were contacted again, finding with emotion that some faraway communities, the people continued to meet regularly to share their experiences of the one copy of the Word of Life that they had preserved for years. They carried ahead for years with only one Word of the Gospel. Today the Movement is comprised of more than 24 thousand people in 290 groups spread throughout the country. Today the ideal of unity holds genuine hope for the people of Burundi. In a climate of tension following the war, the members of the Movement got involved in contributing along with the local Church in the process of reconciliation. There have been some interesting achievements in the economic field and some innovative things are happening in the fields of health and education. In 1999 a group of volunteers of the Focolare Movement founded the CASOBU Association (Cadre Associatif des Solidaires du Burundi), with the goal of seeking durable solutions to the problems of poverty, through the process of participation and mutual support. The “Chiara Luce Badano Social Center” was also begun, which cares for orphan children or children in extreme conditions of poverty in the Kinama quarter (outskirts of bujumbura), an area that was completely destroyed by the war. The words that Chiara Lubich addressed to them on 7 October 1996 remain impressed in the hearts of these Focolare members in Burundi: “Always concentrate on our “Only Treasure.” You’ll be happy and have peace, even amid the difficulties that surround you. Jesus will always be with you in your midst, to touch people’s hearts, to reawaken faith in His love, and to bring unity. I am also with you in this constantly renewed commitment, moment by moment. . .”

Burundi: CASOBU – reconstructive work and fight against poverty

4 Mar 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

CASOBU (Cadre Associatif des Solidaires du Burundi) was founded by a group of volunteers from the Focolare Movement in Burundi, one of the poorest countries on the planet. The country has emerged from a twelve-year political and ethnic conflict, with the displacement of a million people and 300,000 dead. The purpose of the Association is to seek for lasting solutions to the problems of poverty through solidarity and mutual support. Its activity cannot be assessed only in terms of infrastructure development and improved socio-economic conditions, but in the spreading of certain values: solidarity, unity and fraternity. CASOBU’s first focus is in rural contexts. They have taken up several projects, with the support also of AMU, the NGO inspired by the Movement for co-operation in development. For several years CASOBU has been involved with community microcredit projects. These have helped several hundred people, mostly women who are family breadwinners, achieve economy autonomy. In 2008 CASOBU’s social action concentrated upon Ruyigi. The town of Butezi has 6,700 families who live by subsistence farming. During the civil war most of the population fled to refugee camps in Tanzania and now, on returning to their own country, there are numerous problems of readjustment. This initiative takes a three-pronged approach:

ñ nutrition and agriculture: after an initial distribution of emergency foodstuffs to 800 families, the aim is to develop independent food sources, with the distribution cassava cuttings, cows and goats to displaced people and refugees;

ñ aid for orphans and widows;

ñ schemes for the prevention of Aids, run in collaboration with public bodies, and schemes for the prevention malaria, which is responsible for the deaths of numerous children under 5.

The members of CASOBU are trained and skilled people, filled with the gospel spirit of service. Their main aim is to listen attentively to those they meet: ‘We often find ourselves behaving like mothers and fathers of people who more than anything have a burden of pain to share with others.’ In Butezi there is an area where nearly three thousand families live. Only about a hundred of them have clean water, the others draw water from unsafe sources or directly from streams and pools and are exposed to serious illnesses. This means there is need of a new project to bring drinking water to the area, and the first of five has already begun. The strong points of this initiative are: the involvement of local people in the work and in implementation committees to conserve springs and maintain the infrastructure already set in place. The local people accept that they must give the necessary land and accept the difficulties that arise from works being carried out in their fields. All cooperate to rebuild social bonds. The way the members of CASOBU live and how they work strike many people: ‘Often,’ said Innocent from Kayanza, ‘to have a job you have to pay, but here we have noticed a difference. They look in the register of those have already given a voluntarily contribution to the project and they enrol you without any kind of corruption…. Whether you are a simple labourer or a skilled worker, all are on the same level.’ Certainly, not everyone understands immediately what is being done, and patient work by CASOBU is fundamental for helping people realize that these projects are aimed at the common good. Three years after the first project, it is possible to note a significant improvement in the health of families and especially of the children. The latest initiative for access to clean water was in Kibingo (in the province of Kayanza), and it benefited 600 families and 1,200 pupils at the local primary school. Anyone who wishes to participate in the work of CASOBU on behalf of people of Burundi, even with just a one-off gift, can use the following bank details: Account name: Associazione Azione per un Mondo Unito Bank: Banca Popolare Etica, Rome branch. IBAN: IT16G0501803200000000120434 SWIFT/BIC: CCRTIT2184D Payments should be marked for: ‘Progetti in Burundi’. Burundi is a small country in Africa with enormous lakes, and it is one of the poorest places on earth. In the 2011 report by the United Nations Development Programme it was ranked in the third last place (185th) in the league table of Human development. The most vulnerable groups in the population are Aids sufferers, widows, teenage mothers, orphans and people with disabilities. There is also a need to achieve national reconciliation and to rebuild the nation’s economy and social fabric.

India: Kindergartens That Form Peacemakers

3 Mar 2012 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria

Vaikalpalayam is a small village with humble homes and asphalt roads punctuated with potholes. At the entrance to the village stands a small brick building that is bursting with the shouts of a dozen happy children. It houses one of the ten kindergartens or Bala Shanti Kendra which the Gandhian institution Shanti Ashram opened over the years in the region of Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu, South India, close to the borders with Kerala. This Bala Shanti Kendra is one of the ten kindergartens which are part of a project named Bala Shanti. When it began twenty years ago the kindergarten had a precise goal: to begin an educational process among dalit, the outcaste whom Mahatma Gandhi named Harijans, children of God, in order to give them a chance at a more dignified life. What happened then has been called by some a veritable revolution. In India, the dalit live on the edge of the towns, they may not draw water from the same well as the other villagers and, until only a few decades ago, it was unthinkable that they should enter the same temples. In Vaikalpalayam today, dalit children and those of the superior caste study, eat and pray side by side. Their mothers sit beside those of the other students at meetings for the parents of the 220 children who attend kindergartens founded and run by this Gandhian organization that was begun twenty-five years ago by Dr Aram, a nominated member of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, pacifist and top level Indian educator. The goals of the Bala Shanti project as a whole include:

Develop a holistic development initiative in the 3-18 age group
Provide children in the pre-school age with education, nutrition & health services through the Bala Shanti Kendras
Create a child-centered platform for advancing Peace & Inter-religious cooperation
Coordinate a monthly Children’s Parliament : ‘Ondru Seruvom’ for rural boys & girls who graduated from the pre-school program
Ensure the Rights & Responsibilities of Children in partnership with children, families, communities & institutions working for children

The balashanti provide an educational experience that combines early reading and writing skills together with playing, singing, religious and human values, along with daily dietary assistance. Today nearly 1500 children who graduated from the Bala Shanti Kendras participate in the ‘Ondru Seruvom’ or Monthly Children’s Parliament, contributing their commitment and service for the welfare of their village. A dedicated team of teachers, social workers, and child development experts have worked hard for two decades to realize the vision of the program. The local families can only afford one meal a day with a monthly salary of more or less sixty dollars. In recent years, with the great industrial development that is taking place in Coimbatore, new settlements of temporary workers have arisen. Many of the migrant workers are also economically very vulnerable and belong to all religious traditions, the Muslim, the Hindu and the Christian traditions. Many social problems including alcoholism and domestic violence affect the families, requiring thus not only education of the child, but also of the families. Bala Shanti Program serves the community in three ways, Assistance to Children, Assistance to family and Assistance to Community. A group of mothers have been integrated in a micro-credit project. But also throughout their educational experience, the children participate in lessons aimed at teaching them how to save Last year, four year-old Karuna was able to save three thousand rupees in her piggy bank, the same amount as her father’s monthly salary. In the balashanti they learn the rules of hygiene care, which helps to prevent those illnesses that are often caused by poverty. Dr Aram and his wife Minoti are clear on the fact that in order to build a lasting peace it was necessary to start with the little ones. This is where the idea of the kindergartens came from. “The children are often the ones who are able to break the mechanism of family violence and create peace,” recounts Mrs Murthy who has followed the project for more than twenty years. Recently, Divya, a kindergartner at the balashanti went to sit in her father’s arms during a family quarrel. She said to him: “Daddy, violence is like the devil!” Moreover, the children are taught respect for each faith. The morning starts with a Hindu, Muslim and Christian prayer and so the children begin to grow without the barriers and prejudices that have separated groups and communities from this part of India for centuries, and created social tension that often erupted into violent and bloody clashes. The Focolare have been working in this project since the late nineties, when Minoti Aram felt the need to ensure food and nutritional supplements to the children of the balashanti. At that time the New Families and the Gandhian Shanti Ashram joined together on this project, and this gave birth to a brotherhood between the two movements that has opened to religious dialogue and to peace education for the new generations. Gandhi had said: “If you want to teach real peace (…) you should begin with the children.” In its 20^th year, the program will deepen and expand its service to vulnerable children, train and improved capacities of community workers and document experience and findings for policy change, says Shri. A. Devaraj, the current Head of the Bala Shanti Program. Roberto Catalano (From an insert in Città Nuova (5) – 2012)

South Africa: With the Gospel Everything Becomes Possible

2 Mar 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

My name is Maria and I work for my country’s government in the health sector. Each day I experience that the words of the Gospel help me to serve my neighbor better and even to resolve the problems of society. By putting the Gospel in practice, relationships at the office have radically changed: they’ve become more familiar, open and free. I share this ideal of life with three of my colleagues, and together we try to perform our jobs as a service to people, to our city which faces many great challenges. There are two levels of government in South Africa: one is the traditional, which sees the Kgosi (chief) as the head. Each chief has specific expectations about the territory and a level of government with elected representatives who have others. Our challenge is to compose an agreement between these two levels, so that every decision can truly be for the good of the entire community, and so that it can always be more involved in the projects that are proposed. For example, we built six clinics in our district. All the work was done in full agreement with the two levels of government, so that each clinic was fully recognized throughout the territory. Several authorities spoke at the inauguration ceremony, also members from the executive committee of the government. A few days before the event, one of the Kgosi had called us to say that he would not be attending the ceremony because of a supposed disparity between the treatment of officials from the local government and the treatment of the traditional leaders. It was a veritable disaster, from every point of view. There was the danger that the people of the village would also refuse to attend. We tried to resolve the situation by going to visit the chief at his home. We offered him a detailed presentation of each clinic. Thanks to this gesture his attitude changed and he gave his assent to the ceremony, which then turned out to be a great success, an important moment for the entire community. Now we continue to perform each task that is entrusted to us as an opportunity for coming together and helping our city to grow. And, slowly, we see the bonds improving between the population and government officials. Faith and trust are growing on both sides. Moreover, traditional leaders and elected councilors are discovering their own roles in full respect of the roles of the other. And so the child care project is now in the hands of the traditional leaders, and the project for youths is in the hands of the municipal councilors. It is no longer necessary to explain our choices to the different authorities, because they trust us, and the union among all grows in service to the community. We experience that if we try to put the Gospel into practice, truly nothing is impossible!