Born at Walikale, in the Province of Goma, extremely rich in minerals, but where the people live with less than a dollar a day. For Bahati – which in Swahili means “good luck” – life changed when he came in contact with the Salesian “Centre des Jeunes Don Bosco” in Goma-Ngangi where it is possible to learn to use a computer a follow a course in information technology.
Bahati could have stayed at Walikale and enjoyed his privileges as the son of the king of the village, but in spite of his age he understood the importance of education and training.
Massimo Cimicchi, a teacher at the Centre, told the Italian daily paper “Il Giornale” that Bahati “is the first to arrive in class and never misses a lesson. Not even on Sunday. He is curious, intelligent. He is doing very well at school and when he surfs the internet, sometimes I have to put the brakes on when he wants to experiment.”
To overcome the difficulties being experienced by the course in information technology at the “Centre des Jeunes Don Bosco” in Goma-Ngangi Mr. Cimicchi and his Congolese collaborators have thought up some projects to raise funds, by organising a team providing technical-operating assistance in the eastern region of northern and southern Kivu, with satellite installations in the whole of the Congo financed by Signis, the World Catholic Communications Association. In this way the information technology course has become a permanent technical school.
Bahati is one of the many children and youngsters who have found at the Centre an opportunity for their own future. Since 1997, the year it began its activities, the Centre has provided technical training, oratory activities and care for youngsters in need for over 35,000 young Congolese.
The work of the Centre is of fundamental importance for the region where it is located and a number of youngsters who have been child soldiers find refuge there. Mr Cimicchi, in any case is optimistic about Bahati’s future: “certainly he will be one of the youngsters who will represent the Congo of the future” and he will become “en excellent engineer.”
Published 15/01/2010
