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THE RESURRECTION OF AFRICA
D.R. OF THE CONGO, BURUNDI AND AIDS
The destiny of the African continent with its condition of poverty and abandonment is at the center of the concerns of the Community and its humanitarian and peacemaking initiatives.
The commitment in Mozambique also marked the beginning of the first communities in that country. Over the years many Communities of Sant'Egidio have grown in many other parts of the continent, totally composed of Africans, which represent a network of fraternity in a context of great poverty. Each African community, although composed of persons who are not well off, is committed to the service of those who are most poor. Numerous and important services arose, to the youth of the shantytowns, in African prisons, among the street children, and among the adults of the slums of big African cities. The communities also intervene in response to natural disasters, as was the case with the floods in Mozambique, hurricane Mitch, and earthquakes in Central America.
School of Peace in Mozambique
Young workers, university students, managers and African professionals, in the spirit of the Community, become the protagonists of a new society which responds with commitment and friendship to pessimism and resignation. Interpreter of the hope for peace and justice of many Africans, Sant'Egidio offers itself as a concrete alternative to the fragmentation and ethnicization (becoming ethinically divided)of societies, out of the prospect of a rebirth of civil society through the communication of the respect for civil rights and for the culture of solidarity and peace and of its effective and tangible realization by Africans themselves.
Arusha:
Peace negotiations for Burundi
The bond between the Community and the continent has also expressed itself in new political initiatives in favor of peace, as in the case of the peace process for Burundi - where Matteo Zuppi held the office of the president of the commission for the "ceasefire and disarmament"- or in the case of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For the latter country, the intervention of the Community was asked for by various parties, with a mediation proposal still under consideration.
From the humanitarian point of view the Community is committed to the reconstruction and administration of the largest hospital in Guinea-Bissau, destroyed by the recent war with Senegal. Furthermore, this year, in order to react to the devastating progression of the disease over the African continent, the community has launched a project of prevention and treatment of AIDS starting with Mozambique.
The hospital in Guinea-Bissau
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