AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICA – Training to counter unemployment: 29 teachers receive diploma

Bangui (Agenzia Fides) – Despite a situation of war, 29 students at the Jean Paul II Teachers Training College in Bangui recently received their diploma and will soon start work in schools in Central Africa where teaching staff is insufficient and classes overcrowded. The College opened in 2011, thanks to the joint activity of the Association of Friends for Central Africa, the Association Espérance pour la Formation en Centrafrique and religious congregations which work together with Association of Friends for Central Africa: Sisters of Saint Paul de Chartres, Holy Family, Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit, Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Comboni Missionary Sisters, Providence of Rouen. The College, the only Teachers Training Institute here, trains teachers for the whole country .
The Centre is our response to meet the need for training and to eradicate unemployment – we read in a statement sent by the head of formation to Fides -. 71 out of 91 students who obtained a diploma, that is 78%, are already employed. The Association of Friends for Central Africa was formed in 2001 on the basis of the experience of volunteers in the Republic of Central Africa at the Catholic Mission of Zomea run by Comboni Sisters. So far the Association has helped to open 15 schools, 2 dispensaries, 2 healthcare centres, a centre for rehabilitation of persons with a disability and a Dental Centre. To further agricultural progress, the Association has also helped start 400 cooperatives involving at least 14,000 farmers who take part in the national agricultural show in Bozoum, the only one in Central Africa. (AP) (24/7/2015 Agenzia Fides)