This is a time of grace! A time of freedom! With our heads held high, arm in arm, we will celebrate victory and create history in the streets with children smiling all over the world.
Rwanda, a country with not only a thousand hills but also a thousand problems. These problems are solved every second by church action in collaboration with the Wanda Christian workers’ movement. Militants from 6 different countries worked hard for 3 consecutive days and then another 9 days in collaboration with the main movements.
We began by setting up a regional seminar for East Africa. The seminar’s theme was based on Fraternity, a reminder of the 2013 General Assembly’s decision to share different experiences linked to fraternity; our aim was to build a world where social and professional rights are respected.
Militants from the MMTC Sao movements that attended were convinced that only justice and fraternity can help us to build a fair, fraternal and society with solidarity. Remember that we succeeded thanks to forgiveness in 1994.
Each country presented the key ideas they had been working on.
SEE
ZAMBIA - A movement’s Responsibility. The country is and was organised by different tribes who are no longer separated today but fight together for a fairer life.
Christians and non-Christians alike are all human beings who find their strength in love, simplicity and by respecting other people. The document sent by the MMTC for us to work on reflected society perfectly and gave us a good insight into the situation. We better understand the situation for women and their families who live in extreme poverty; most of whom do not have the relevant information regarding their rights, or at least not yet. With micro financing, we can manage to improve their living conditions and help them become more aware of rights that exist for all citizens, both men and women. There is also the need to step up group work on education; we really need to discuss work possibilities and living conditions of refugees. The Diocese has made this an action for social protection.
TANZANIA - We feel the need to do something. But what can we do? Encourage people to look for new social projects where justice prevails. This can indeed be done thanks to actions worked on by our militants contribute on a weekly basis. As in Zambia, there is an inferiority complex that is felt. The movement encourages women to get more involved in managing the church, hence the arrival of a project with women who are the poorest, organising a bank called ISA. We are also organising a project to improve the level of education on offer to help people decide on whom to vote for whilst also training the key groups.
KENYA - We are all born brothers and sisters just like Adam and Eve. We are created by one unique God. Our main aim is to help working class people in our country to improve their living conditions. We are also organising economical projects: chicken breeding, goats and bees. This is all part and parcel of an economic cooperation project: Biogas, planting trees. We are also working with vulnerable groups (people with learning deficiencies). For a Christian, working in the church means putting fraternity, democracy and solidarity into practice. Our work means that we are able to achieve collective projects to encourage living in fraternity. This is also known as living in Peace.
We are looking to get the social doctrine of the Church up and running by strengthening key groups that are the very pillars of our movement, endeavouring to become a real training movement. So as to reinforce the idea of SEE-JUDGE-ACT, we are also stepping up actions for life changes.
A vast majority of women cannot be committed in their country and many emigrate to work elsewhere. During the presidential election campaign, we were delighted to see that women do themselves have rights and that little by little they are starting to find their place in society.
UGANDA- In reality, how can we help people live together without excluding any citizens who are different in any way? We are working on the idea of gender - how can men help women? Women do not have the same political or social responsibility as men. In addition, many women are victims of violence and suffer as a result.
We need to gradually encourage women who have been victims of domestic violence to help others free themselves from such a situation.
The Uganda Government signed an OIT convention but for this to work, movements within the country need to put pressure on parliament. A vast majority of the country’s population is unemployed and many of these job seekers are willing to accept a badly paid job; even if this means working difficult and long hours. They do not sign a contract and there is no organisation strong enough to help them complain. Even young people and children who are not old enough to work end up working in such conditions.
RWANDA - We are training members ready for these actions (from experience) in our key groups. A vast majority of militants live off the land.
We have concrete examples, with refugees who come form Burundi where there is a problem with regards food distribution. One of our main actions today is related to domestic servants who are very often marginalised and who, in most cases, do not benefit form any kind of social protection or laws for working class people. We are trying to step up action by way of public policies to defend these people.
JUDGE
Directly after presenting each country, Father Christian helped us to think more about: A society which is fair, fraternal and sustainable, directly related to the social Doctrine of the Church.
BUILD - This word brings to mind the idea of encouraging the WMCW and MMTC movements to work together.
SOCIETY- The fundamental idea of the bible: Work is part of Man’s creation with the view to building a society with solidarity.
The BIBLE
In the book of Genesis, we are told about the story of creation -work is not a punishment, the punishment part comes later. God the creator and worker is watching over us.
Work enriches and unifies life (human beings, nature and all the universe). Work is the tool we can use to fight against poverty. Work also includes the idea of rest, which is needed if we wish to continue working longer. (EDODIS 3,6-11) It is very important for the Earth to rest as well. God is the creator, and Jesus like his Father, worked to contribute to the project of creation. He lived like any other man, working to earn a living as a Carpenter (Marc 6, 3).
These are the key ideas behind our actions. It is important to value everybody’s work and this without any exception, this is where our dignity lies “he who works not, eats not”. The punishment part comes from those who exploit work unfairly, stealing food from workers’ mouths.
We are all part of the Church, It is prophetical view, you are a worker who contributes to God’s creation to reach the Divine (Kingdom of Heaven). The creator’s project is to build a fair, fraternal and sustainable society. Our dignity lies in our ability to stand up against anything that lies in the way of the Kingdom of God, destroying divine values of justice, sharing, Divine mercy, and forgiveness. We have to make a choice: Between God and money. This suggests converting both personally and with regards our commitments to others. In this way we can resist (in a non violent way) the pressure of destruction which affects the whole world, today more than ever. Our key teams work on life changes on a regular basis and this will help us too.
The Encyclical RERUM NOVARUM de LEÃO XXIII – in 1891, provided us with a deep analysis of working class living and working conditions in an era affected by serious conflict and little action in response to the situation. This is still today a key reference to Social Doctrine in the Church, reminding us of evangelical recommendations for respecting human dignity, relationships between industrial production and work. Parts of the bible underlining this fundamental idea clearly expose conflict causes, ambiguous and contrasting ideologies; private property and universal destination of world goods.....
In the DST (n° 164/167), it is said that “we are all poor, but not too poor enough to have nothing to offer”:
Solidarity between people/ reducing the weight on other people’s shoulders/ Without fraternity there can be no justice.
Social Doctrine document 6: Man’s social dignity/Cleanliness in Wanda is considered to be a value/ How can we build a society dominated by fear? /Just like value, justice is essential to society and so too is evangelism.
N°201, Love is the first of Jesus’ recommendations: We cannot do anything without love/If a family doesn’t smile then society will no longer be able to smile either.
IN terms of responsibility: looking after young people and children that are coming straight onto the construction market. How is our movement getting on with regards the future of our mission? / If you do not have a clear vision of things, you will not have a building project for family, economy and work. These are essential aspects for family life: for fathers, mothers and for children (we need to be open to Society)
Family and society both go hand in hand.
The Kigalli village Bishop and the president of the sectarian apostolic Church were there to help us think about Social Doctrine. The Bishop told us that the seminar was being held at the same time as the year of mercy/ Life organisation goes hand in hand with demonstrating the mercy of God through his son Jesus. He loves us all without exception, he is the image and reflection of Divine Mercy. We are invited to dedicate our life to him. Members who contribute to Catholic work represent God’s own work on Earth. Before leaving, I hope that you will be able to go through the cathedral doors as if you were a pilgrim. Militants are welcomed in the streets by social institutions committed to the population.
Another reference to Social Doctrine in the Church can be found in the writings of Jean-Paul II: The Church has something to say and live with regards social matters/it is an expert on human issues and wise to the World/ Cultural and social aspects are reflected in our actions throughout the world:
Important: The Social Doctrine of the Church is open to everyone and not just to Catholics and Apostolics.
ACT (a few directions)
Having thought about the importance of committing to act firmly together both on a local and regional level related to all of the MMTC, We have started to think again about what affects each of our teams:
We have already spoken about the 0.50 campaign (cinquenta centimes), which is still seen as a challenge for contact movements; and we need to continue our key discussions on this. Movements continue their efforts to make their members more aware of the situation. Everybody undertakes direct actions in the Diocese of the town where the movement is active and where there is a great many things to do.
Attempts to reach out to young people and make them aware of the importance of what militants are doing in the respective areas they are committed to.
In the Campaign of 7th October: The need for a universal minimum salary and real social protection for all countries. Each country does indeed have its own way of working but our action consists in making people understand why a job deserves to have a decent salary. We really need to get parliaments to listen and understand. In a majority of countries, the minimum wage is very low while in others there is not even a fixed amount, as is the case in Wanda.
Domestic Servants: All of the members of movements that attended the seminar told us that one of their techniques to fight against this injustice was to train Domestic servants. This is one of the most exploited work sectors with the least working rights; even children are used for this type of work.
“Domestic servants”endure working conditions that are difficult to imagine. This is why we need to make people in this category aware of their rights.
Most Domestic servants are young; and by attending this seminar, we have been given the chance to share our mutual concerns and think about what to do next: everybody asked for better training, not only socio-political training by professional as well. Training needs are as follows: for dressmakers, builders, stone quarry workers and for Carpenters. We have explained the world movement of Christian workers to the different groups who came by, explaining that we not only need socio-political, economic and social training but also training for workers in other countries. Each country is unique with its own reality, which is why we need to put our heads together to think things over further.
Mariléa presented all work carried out by the MMTC as well as problems encountered over the last few years. Today, the world movement is kept running thanks to money from MMTC membership fees. Continental and regional seminars are supported by German workers through the Church (KAB/represented by Welnotwerk). We at MMTC make up the difference.
We were pleased to welcome a representative from the African Community Ministry who grouped countries together from the continent. He spoke of the importance of integrating religion- African civilisation inside the region - civil society within society.
Integrating the countries in question was carried out in 1967, in 1977. Unfortunately the project then fell through until 2000 when things improved. Structure depends upon policies and at this time there were 2 presidents and 1 minister. There was a great deal of conflict further to the military overthrowing of the government in Tanzania.
Setting up the ‘Acting’ part of the project for movements who attended the seminar. We need:
- More training for key teams,
- to work as a team on regular basis for life changes based on real experiences of one or more militants, in the light of Jesus Christ, (from the old and new testament, social Doctrine of the church, current directions given by pope François) - we are going to use our JUDGE-SEE-ACT method and the same is true for all seminars or spiritual days together.
- to Prepare delegates according to the 2017 General Assembly
- to organise a group (to help coordinate work in East Africa in partnership with a representative of each country) to reinforce work within the region. The representatives are: Ângelo (Tanzania), (Justin) Zambia (with a question mark because he needs to talk with the movement in his own country first), Peter (Kenya), Evariste (Rwanda) and James (Uganda).
Mariléa’s conclusion
“As representative of the world movement for Christian workers, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the work that has been organised and carried out related to the key areas of the movement: that is to say apprenticeships for bicycle handling, for agricultural groups on banana and pineapple plantations, young domestic servants, women that are strongly present in all these groups. A big thank you to all coordinators for the Wanda movement (Innocent, Evariste, Josefina, Emmanuel, Justino), thank you to the national assistant movement, to the civil servants at the Saint Paul centre, who have marked their presence with tenderness, courage and determination; thank you to the KAB militants and Welnotwerk civil servants who contribute greatly to the mission for helping a population to rebuild themselves further to a very hard time in the life history of each man and woman involved.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say right here and now that even if I was born in a poor country in the ghetto of Rio de Janeiro, I find it impossible to imagine living without hardly any salary.
“My friends, a big thank you to everyone for sharing their experiences and for trusting us, we remain strong and will continue our mission.”
I believe the world will be a better place when the smallest victim can find it in their hearts to believe in someone even smaller still.”
MARILÉA DAMASIO
General Secretary of WMCW
Working to help the working class
