By Charlotte CossetPosted on 11-09-2019Modified on 11-09-2019 at 10:21

In Bangui, street children are numerous: orphans, children separated from their families, in conflict with their relatives ... Few options are available to them to get out of this situation. The Voix du Cœur Foundation welcomes a hundred of these young people. The goal: to reintegrate them. This involves a medical follow-up, a follow-up on hygiene and nutrition, but also a return to school. In the center, several educators including Mr. Marcel, an unusual teacher.

" Have you understood ? A tall, slender teacher speaks to about sixty students of all ages. On the blackboard, calculations of different levels are made. The students are calm. Dressed in uniforms in loincloths or with holes, the big behind, the smaller ones in front. Here, Monsieur Marcel is teaching street children.

Alain Marcel Demassé, commonly called "Mr. Marcel", is sixty years old. He carries a small wooden cross around his neck on a check shirt. But we must not let ourselves be counted on by his benevolent eyes. He knows how to be strict. " As soon as they come from the street, it's not easy. First, we replace parents by treating them as our own children. The first thing to do is to seek to correct the state of the street and to integrate the child in the discipline of the center, in life in society and community, "he says.

"A Gentleman who is special"

It is a long way to the arrival of street children, called here "godobe", who push the door of the foundation. Some come only to get treatment in the small health center of the organization, take a shower or a meal. Without forcing anything, the Voice of the Heart tries to push them towards the benches. So for a month, Mr. Marcel tames them. He conducts activities with them, gets to know them and makes them respect them. He evaluates their level so that he can adapt his teaching. In class, he mixes periods of concentration and moments of relaxation: songs, fun activities ... This morning, after computing exercises, here they are all doing the caterpillar, Mr. Marcel leading around the tables-benches. It is not uncommon for children to fight. But a black look of the teacher is usually enough to bring the children in the row.

In his class, about sixty children of all ages and all levels. " Really, it's a special gentleman, because teaching is a difficult job. Marcel here brings together all the children with different levels, and he brings them - even those who have never been to school - to count and write , explains Dieudonné Wabeti, the director of the Foundation Voix du Coeur. And especially these children who come from the streets, it is not always obvious. But he's doing well. I am always amazed at his dexterity. "

The teacher, very talkative, is much less when it comes to talking about him

Mr. Marcel was trained by the Catholic Church. He is a career teacher. He was general supervisor at a private college in Douala, Cameroon. When he returns to the Central African Republic, he returns to the diocese of Bossangoa. There, he is entrusted with the care of the handicapped center. He is also involved in helping Chadian refugees in Bouca. He has been teaching for eleven years in the center of La Voix du Coeur. " I'm comfortable here because working with children is my calling. And I'm very proud to be among the kids, "he says.

Children with a bad reputation

Emmanuel is a little lanky teenager. He has a slight stuttering. Arrived in 2015 at the center, he went through the class of Mr. Marcel. " He's good because he teaches us to read and write. If we have reading problems, he helps us. Sometimes he is strict with those who are stubborn, " says the boy. Emmanuel found his way back to school. He has just finished the second class and goes to the next level. In conflict with his parents, he is always supported by the center and sleeps at the boarding school of the Voix du Coeur. Here, he can spend the night safely, wash and have a meal.

Pride for his "godobe", Mr. Marcel has to resell. This year, more than half of his students have returned to a traditional school circuit. " Most of the children we have enrolled in school have arrived in the upper grades, there are others who have had their certificate of fundamental 1, they had their entry examination in the 6th, some even had the BPC, "explains the teacher. One of his greatest pride is this former student who went to university and became an English teacher. If he is proud of his students who have had a prestigious school career, he is no less of all the successes, all the efforts made by these young people to get out of the street.

He knows the reputation of street children and the vision of people on them. " All these children, yes apparently they are condemned, they are treated of everything. But they are intelligent kids who can do something. It is a problem of social supervision. They are competent, they are intelligent. It is up to us, the adults, now to accompany them, to guide them in the right direction, "says the teacher. The sixties is full of energy. He says to talk. For him, there is no question of stopping as long as he has the physical ability to stand in front of his class.

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