To educate, to rejoice, to give thanks, to intercede is my mission today
From Tengrela, Ivory Coast, the testimony of Sister Attilia Bario, of the “Missionaries of Our Lady of the Apostles”
This 2025 is a year of grace for me as I will celebrate 4 jubilees in addition to the Church’s Jubilee Year : 50 years of religious life, 50 years of missionary life in Ivory Coast and 75 years of life and baptism .
I feel myself among the blessed in Luke’s Gospel (10:21-24) :
“blessed are you because many have desired to see what you have seen and to hear what you have heard.”
I have just finished the conviviality of the Better World Service Promoter group of which I am a member.
The service promotes the spirituality of communion through community spiritual exercises for diocesan groups and the editing of notebooks for the animation of the CEBs (Ecclesial Base Communities) present in all parishes in Côte d’Ivoire.
In each notebook is the outline for six meetings inspired by facts of life and Church documents.
The last one is inspired by the final document of the Synod : “living the synodal spirit…in ourselves…in the family…in the CEB…in the parish ….with other inhabitants of the neighborhood….with all men and women respecting differences.”
These are two activities that grow communion within each parish and between dioceses with the proposed paths of the grant. In fact, the CEBs bring together weekly Christian families who live in the same neighborhood; this allows for a pastoral outreach and presence of the Church in the neighborhood. It is a beautiful reality that I have seen grow
The ‘other project close to our hearts is “Peace and Nonviolence Education in Primary and Secondary Schools.”
The title of the manual was designed by one of our SMA Fathers, executive director of the Shalom Network for Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation REST-COR, founded by the SMA Fathers in collaboration with us NDA sisters.
We have multiple projects for conflict resolution depending on its nature.
But the one I have made my own is “educ-peace in schools,” because we think it is important to cultivate peace et nonviolence among young people, who are the most instrumentalized to carry out violence, as well as being victims of it.
This urgency for peace education was born after the crises the country has experienced in the past 20 years .
Another tool I am using to help live peace is the interreligious peace nut from Living peace international.
- Each one of us is responsible for peace to the extent that we commit ourselves to living the word cast.
- Every religion educates for peace and fraternity, but politicians often instrumentalize to create conflict.
We will see at the end of the year what happens …. Pilgrim of hope from one school to another, continuing to sow peace, dialogue and reconciliation .
In the department of Tengrela, we have 13 colleges including three high schools, 80 elementary schools et 8 kindergartens. The state is making efforts to establish a kindergarten in each elementary school block ; two years ago, we also presented the manual to teachers along with child protection training.