Remembering My Friends Under the Streetlights
By René Bagunda MUHINDO
Democratic Republic of the Congo — In March 2018 when I met children working in the mines 90 kilometres from Bukavu, it triggered something for me. Their bright smiles as they sang with such joy for having passed their school exams reminded me of children I had met three years before in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
The children there participate in a project called “the Library Under the Streetlights”. At 8:00 p.m. a facilitator arrives in the street to read a book aloud. In Ouagadougou, local and international organisations invest a lot to change the situation for children who live in the street. Some have built support and training centres for them; but not all children want to stay there.
Our ATD Fourth World volunteer corps team in Ouagadougou carried out interviews with the children and we learnt that every child had a specific dream. I met Fiston, 10 years old at the time. One April morning he told us: “An organisation came to tell us that there is a celebration today at 3 o’clock. We need guidance and education and instead they bring us food; but I’m not interested in that. People think that all the children on the street are difficult — drug users who can’t adapt to family life. But that’s not true; some children live on the street because they don’t have a choice.” Fiston had decided to stay in a shelter after trying, without success, to rebuild ties with his family.
Another child, age 8, asked us to go with him to his village to get back in touch with his family. Florent (a member of ATD’s volunteer corps) travelled about 100 kilometres with him. When they arrived, the child’s family pretended not to recognize him. Yet, other children in the family courtyard ran up to him, calling out his name. The child was crushed. When he and Florent got back to the city, I witnessed the suffering that many of these children experience. A few days later we managed to reach the boy’s father, who had left for the Ivory Coast. It was incredible to see the child’s joy after their telephone conversation. In July 2016, I learnt that the team traveled with the boy to the Ivory Coast so he could meet his father. That had been his deepest wish.
Despite the misery of the streets, nothing can remove what is admirable in these children. Each of them has a dream that can’t be taken from them even by the rain and winds of the night that keep them awake in the tunnels and abandoned cars where they try to sleep. Before I left last June, ten of them spent a day with us doing manual work at the Courtyard of a Hundred Trades. They each told me their dream: becoming a doctor, painter, filmmaker, circus performer, or musician, for example. The most important thing for all of them was to return home. The hope that one day their dreams will come true encourages the children and brings a smile to help them face hunger and thirst.
From these children I learnt to dig deep to find the strength to keep going when misfortunes thwart my dreams. Thinking about their dreams inspires me to keep trying to carry out mine. With each difficulty I face, this memory gives me the power to believe I can succeed.
