The future is still uncertain for Naomie Komessé,
an internally
displaced mother and one of many to find safety inside St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Bangui, Central African Republic.
They sleep on pews I
Children gather at a pump the Lutheran World Federation restored in Bohong village, western CAR.
LWF/PAULINE MUMIA
David Danwen thatches his roof
again after attacks on Gbetene village in Ouham-Péndé in western CAR.
LWF/PAULINE MUMIA 40
www.thelutheran.org
LWF/PAULINE MUMIA
In CAR, a Lutheran church becomes a shelter for the displaced By Pauline Mumia
t’s Sunday evening at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Bangui, Central African Republic, and the main gate to the stone-walled compound is locked. Inside, under dim lighting, children run and play, young people gather under tarpaulin tents and a woman stokes an open fire while preparing a family meal. A few people engage St. Timothy’s pastor, Paul
Denou, in a lively discussion about the differences between an internally displaced person (IDP) and a ref- ugee. “Does it matter in the end, whether you are here or outside the country?” asked Jean Georges Haman, 65, a retired police commissioner. “Te fact is, you have been driven out of your home.” Haman and six family members have lived at the
church (a parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Central African Republic or EELRCA) since December 2013, when armed groups raided their home in the capital’s Fondo neighborhood. Tey are among 120 displaced people living at St. Timothy and among some 142,000 people in Bangui who have taken shelter in churches, mosques, open fields and other sites.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52