CAR – Compassion and Commitment towards a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
As
part of the Youth for Youth initiative
of the Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) partner centres, the Centre d'Information d'Education et d'Ecoute du Centre Catholique
Universitaire de Bangui (CIEE-CCU) set up the project "Actions des Jeunes pour un Environnement Sain et Durable" (AJESD).
A training workshop on the environmental crisis, environmental protection and public hygiene awareness campaign was held at the University of Bangui. Private institutes and schools in Bangui also participated in educational radio talks on the environment. On Saturday, 13 May 2023, a hundred students attended a health and hygiene activity at the University Paediatric Hospital Complex (CHUP) in Bangui.
The three-hour activity was devoted to cleaning the internal and external premises of the CHUP under the astonished gaze of the complex's clients, surprised by the dynamism of youth volunteers. To see students render services of this kind is very rare. Lowly and humble jobs are not so attractive for young people considered 'elites' who have the privilege of accessing higher education. Weeding, cleaning and disinfecting unsanitary premises raised a thousand and one questions. Why do they do what they do? What do they gain from it?
The students supervised by the CIEE-CCU received a general orientation from the General Secretariat of the African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN), a network of about twenty centres in Africa and Madagascar involved in the Jesuit apostolate of compassion and protection in the fight against AIDS and other diseases. The theme chosen for the academic year 2022-2023 is: "Creating a more compassionate, caring, hopeful and committed African generation to protect the planet". It is a follow-up to the global project launched in 2021-2022: "AJAN Walks with Youth: Youth for Youth Advocacy Initiatives". Depending on the contextual realities of each AJAN partner centre, a specific project is proposed by young people for young people. The project activities aim to "put young people at the centre and help them see the world, their lives, and work for positive personal transformation as well as for community transformation." These are activities that "young people carry out themselves to send a message, to sensitise, or educate fellow youth or their community."
At the level of the Central African Republic, the CIEE-CCU has chosen 'Happy Generation: Compassion and Commitment' as the theme for the 2022-2023 academic year. This theme gives dynamism to the activities to be carried out. Our Youth Actions for a Healthy and Sustainable Environment (YASES) project is a concrete response to the desire to create a more compassionate, caring, hopeful and committed African generation to protect the planet.
Our valiant 154 peer educators trained in environmental crisis issues have become a kind of 'critical conscience' in their social milieu. They are well aware of the magnitude of the problem affecting their country. Determined to take concrete action to preserve the environment and create more hygienic and healthy living environments, they have carried out awareness-raising activities among fellow students at the University of Bangui, in the institutes and colleges and in the city's schools. In addition, they have educational talks on two radio stations in Bangui city.
The health and hygiene activity concludes the series of actions to protect the environment. The choice of venue is not insignificant. As the Complexe Hospitalier Universitaire Pédiatrique (CHUP) in Bangui is a place that welcomes very young children, it was a way to express compassion for these sick children and to renew our commitment to work for a healthy and sustainable environment as a guarantee of health and well-being. The fruits of such an exercise include compassion, love, a sense of service, and humility--all gathered by the young people who gave their time and energy to serve. On the side of the beneficiaries (users), it is the joy of seeing young people devote themselves to doing good without expecting anything in return.
Charles SOMDA, SJ
Coordinator
of CIEE-CCU-BANGUI/RCA
[email protected]
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