Social Work

I am Bèterbèteon Charles SOMDA, a Jesuit from Burkina Faso. I am currently on a mission in the Central African Republic. I am involved in several educational and social activities with the youth and students of the city of Bangui.

Among many other things, there I have learned the value of the collective: the certainty that in the work we do in the social sector, it will always be better to work in the plural than in the singular.

When I started my journey, I thought I was going to have a career in social work; instead, I have found a vocation. While my vocation has not been a call to the religious life it has been a clear and persistent call to a ministry deeply rooted in my faith.

The UAPs confirm the social apostolate as an important ministry of the Society of Jesus. Besides serving directly people in need, the UAPs also remind us that the path we seek to stand with the poor is one that promotes social justice...

Our work for the benefit of the population is essentially based on a series of studies conducted to understand the population, the events and the context and to collect the needs, priorities and concerns of this population in order to transform them into a series of actions...

I was touched by their generosity. Despite their hardship they were very generous to us. I felt the need to do something for the poor and IDP children in our neighborhood.

I realize more and more that my life is a gift. In and through this gift, the Lord is revealing himself to me and he is toiling and labouring...

One of my boyhood dreams was to save lives, a dream which is quite common among young people.

From my childhood, I used to go to the tea plantation estates along with the religious sisters for training the workers children in catechism and choir.

Jabhat alNusra, the same that ruined the church, and, most sadly, killed Father François in June 2013. Then FatherFrans in April 2014. Why? This same question stayed in my head for months after I heard about his assassination.