Project Father Redaelli Center
Africa | Africa | Congo | CongoCONTEXT
Congo gained independence from France in 1960 and subsequently became the first African communist country. Since then, coups d’état and revolutions have followed, giving rise to a civil war that still continues today, albeit on and off.
This situation of instability has brought the country into a contradictory condition: despite being one of the main African oil exporters, more than 50% of its inhabitants live below the poverty line.
The most dramatic fact of this policy is the conditions of poverty in which many “invisible” children live, deprived of rights and forced to adapt to life on the street.
FRANCISCAN’S PRESENCE
The Franciscan missionary fraternity of “Notre Dame d’Afrique” in Congo Brazzaville was born in 1991 on the initiative of the Friars Minor of Italy with a twofold objective: the proclamation of the Gospel and service to the poorest.
After a short period, the Franciscan presence also extends to the capital Brazzaville, where there are many children and young people, abandoned from an early age, who live alone, defenseless, invisible in the streets.
THE PROJECT
For them, the friars have given life to the “Ndako ya Bandeko”, project, which in the local language means “house of the brothers”. At the beginning, the Franciscan friars welcomed street children and adolescents only for the night, to keep them away from the dangers of the street but the real need was to offer these little ones a real home in which to grow up. Among the friars who took care of the children there was also Father Angelo Redaelli, who died as a missionary in Congo Brazzaville in 2005.
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