"The situation in Africa makes you cry". This bitter statement comes from father Fabien Hagenimana, from the diocese of Ruhengeri (Rwanda), during the meeting on "Working as new people", which was held yesterday afternoon at the church of St. Nikolaus in Cologne. "Africans seem to be asleep reports the priest -. They let themselves be exploited by the powerful, who make money off their work, while poverty is on the increase". The Western world too, according to father Hagenimana, is taking advantage of this situation, "seeing Africa as an opportunity of exploitation rather than a people who wants to grow". According to the priest, it would be important "to raise funds for schools, while it is easier to find people investing money for traffics in arms". The Church of Rwanda is trying to relieve poverty through positive aids: "The farmers work hard, but the produce is paid very little. This is why we have built a barn where we store the wheat bought at a fair price. At times of famine, we resell it cheap to feed the poor". Mathieu Kpoghomou, diocesan commissioner of the Scouts of Nzerekore (Guinea), reports that in his country "there are few job opportunities and many people are forced to migrate to Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, where they are often recruited by the rebel groups". Another problem, he concludes, concerns "the high number of HIV positive people who cannot work".
