Lent, Matter of Faith

"Welcoming the homeless" is a mission that the Lord entrusts to us as Christians, despite the difficulties that may arise in a society of efficiency and profitability. Passionate about life, I have long wondered about its meaning. Why do we live and where are we going? Is life worth living? Yes, it is fully worth living.

When I took early retirement from the Ivorian civil service in 2002, my passion for life motivated me to set up an association to serve life as a Christian. I discovered that the word "profession" was rooted in prophecy. I wanted to be a prophet of life, of God's love through my training and my profession as a social worker.

One day, a mother who had heard about my activities came to see me in my small office. She wanted me to do something for children with disabilities, as she had a disabled son who needed supervision. The latter wandered the streets of the city, for lack of structures. I replied that if she found other women in the same situation as her, I could consider doing something.

In the meantime, a special educator friend also asked me to do something for the benefit of psychomotor handicapped children. The lady came back in the rain with four other mums and I was convinced there was a call to life for the poorest of the poor. A call to respond to this work of mercy which consists in taking care of the homeless.

A call from the Lord

So I started life support for disabled children abandoned by their families because in a certain African mentality these children are considered geniuses who must be got rid of. First three children and word of mouth helping, the number grew. This is how the Center d’Éveil Crescendo (small center for specialized education) was born in Bassam.

After two years of experience in the ambulatory system, I perceived a call from the Lord to go further. That is to say, to leave everything and share daily life with abandoned psychomotor and sensory disabled children. Providence has prepared things. A deeply disabled child is abandoned, the social service calls me, I move… and thus the Maison Saint-Joseph is born, in February 2015, in Grand-Bassam. In April 2017, for better care of the children, whose number was growing, we settled in Bonoua.

This house was born from a Christian intuition to bear witness to the love of God, by welcoming abandoned disabled children to give them the possibility of a more human life, respectful of their dignity as human persons.

In this house, we give them love, family life, medico-psycho-pedagogical and psychomotor care, and help them develop their potential through appropriate educational practice.

Experiencing Divine Providence

I work with the means at hand and rely on the generosity of each other. My employer being Jesus, I experience divine providence, every day… and in the smallest details of life, I see that God is faithful! It is his work, he gave me the management! I trust him.

Of course, I know moments of doubt, of questioning, when it is necessary to pay the staff… when I am exhausted… when a child is sick… when a child dies. I am also faced with worries about the future… the children are growing up… what should I do…? But in the face of all this, playing the role of father and mother to these abandoned disabled children, I keep the faith!

I deeply believe that mentalities here vis-à-vis these children are changing and will change over time. The conception of the human person, of his dignity beyond appearance is slowly but surely evolving. I observe it with the staff who work with me.

 In a society of efficiency and profitability, we begin to understand that some people are created simply to be with us. They were born so that we could quite simply live with them and that their handicap, their supposed "uselessness" serve to question us about the meaning and orientation of our life, of life!

Eight years that this adventure lasts! My heart rejoices when I see how far I've come! God is faithful in his love. Everyone makes their Crescendo, at their own pace for sustainable human development! At Maison Saint-Joseph, this is what we try to live through the works of mercy.