The event took place at the Gahinja reception house, a branch of the Don Bosco Ngangi youth centre, where the Salesians take in vulnerable children who decide to leave the streets in view of a return to their families.
The ceremony was presided over by Fr Jean-Pierre Muhima Mutaka, Rector of the Salesian Community in Ngangi. He did so in the presence of numerous children just off the streets of Goma, and state authorities, members of the Salesian Family and other people representing various social organisations.
Fr Muhima Mutaka took the opportunity to invite all participants to take action to protect the rights of children in the current context, in which the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the victim of heavy clashes internally and of an ongoing economic instability that exposes more and more children to multiple forms of violence and exploitation.
The day had three important moments.
First, the presentation of the theme of this year's celebrations: “Children's rights in the digital environment”, followed by the testimonies of a parent of one child who has benefited from a scholarship to attend the Salesians' art and trade courses, and two girls taken in by the Mamma Margaret house in Ngangi, which deals with preparing children from the streets for work. All the speeches praised the positive impact of the work carried out by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Goma on behalf of vulnerable children in the region.
Subsequently, a series of recreational activities were carried out by the young people and children from the Gahinja house, all focused on the promotion of children's rights.
Finally, Fr Muhima Mutaka and some of the leaders of the social organisations at the ceremony visited the young people detained in the juvenile prison in Goma. On this occasion, they gave them some items, food or otherwise, to demonstrate their closeness and offer them some comfort. The Rector of the Salesian community in Ngangi, for his part, also offered them a word of encouragement in their situation, wishing them a future of freedom and success outside prison.
African Children's Day is celebrated on 16 June each year in memory of the events that took place in Soweto, South Africa, on that date in 1976 when thousands of young South African students demonstrated to demand a quality education. The police in the apartheid regime at the time shot into the crowd and hundreds of young people were killed or injured.
Jambo Vijana, AFC-EST Magazine
https://www.infoans.org/en/component/k2/item/18328-democratic-republic-of-congo-salesians-celebrate-african-child-day-with-street-children#sigProId0d268c01c4
