When Children Make a Difference in Their Community
The founder of ATD Fourth World, Joseph Wresinski, said, “A new humanity will see the light of day because we want to make it happen.” The children who live in my neighbourhood proved this in two important ways.
Firstly, as part of Tapori, the ATD Fourth World children’s movement, they would meet regularly to think about situations in which someone is excluded and to imagine how to become friends with someone who doesn’t have any friends. This resulted in them spending a festive occasion in the neighbouring prison with incarcerated minors on November 20, 2013, Universal Children’s Day.
Djuma, a young prisoner said that, “When I get out of this prison I will be a great Tapori dancer, because dancing helps us to forget about suffering.” At the end of the day, a few prisoners were released and everyone applauded as their names were called.
Secondly, the children have even gone further than this, by mobilising an entire community.
Emile lived with his family in a small house made from mud that is typical of the neighbourhood. No one dared visit him. The way in which his community had forgotten, disregarded and excluded him had gone on for a long time.
Some people called him a “sorcerer” because he was poor. Such a reputation forced him to be alone, he had no one to speak to other than his family, no one would go near him, and so he withdrew.
The condition of his house started to deteriorate. A small amount of rain would have been enough to cause it to crumble completely, and so the family had to sometimes sleep outside to try to avoid this risk.
One day during a meeting to prepare for the Day of the African Child, the children explained their dream that all children should have the same opportunities in life. One child said, “I don’t think I can be at peace if my friends don’t sleep well. When we talk about the right to a home, I think about the neighbouring children who don’t have a place to sleep.” I was surprised and asked the others what they thought. Djibril, aged 11, suggested, “We could go and build their house.” I thought this would be difficult, but I kept the previous experience of cleaning the water hydrant for World Water Day in mind. Seeing the children work then led the adults to say, “This is no job for a child, it’s our job.”
Through the support of the father of one of the children in the group, the children offered to help Emile repair his house.
On the first day, they levelled the ground. Young passers-by were touched by the work they saw, and realised that they had to help with this task too. The next day two dozen children came to help. Shortly after, their parents joined in. Everyone used their skills to help each other and did whatever they could to help the project move forward. Some took the initiative to ask for the support of associations and, with the support of the whole community, the house was built.
In May 2010, Emile was invited to take part in the celebrations for International Family Day in Tanzania. He met other families who fight daily to try to effect change. It was during this event people began affectionately calling him Papa Emile.
When he came back from his trip, he told the children and families how proud he felt when his friends in Tanzania showed him respect. A member of the group said to him, “You are a true father because you represented us well, you spoke about our dedication.” ‘Emile the sorcerer’, who everyone previously despised, became once and for all ‘Papa Emile’, and this encouraged many other families to gather in his home. Papa Emile had found his place in his community once more.
When I see him today, among the others in his community, I am confident that one day we will be able to have a world where we all look at one another as equals.
By René Muhindo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo
