In order to be effective in carrying out our mission with vulnerable people, including internally displaced persons, the office of the network “Justice and Peace” which brings together representatives of all religious institutes, offered us a training session in Ouagadougou, BURKINA FASO, from December 13 to 14. The Apostolic Exhortation “DILEXI TE – I HAVE LOVED YOU” of the Holy Father Leo XIV on love towards the poor was the subject. Father Jérémie POGOROWA, Professor at the major seminary in Ouagadougou, explained how the person consecrated to the service of vulnerable people is a pastoral and missionary instrument with internally displaced persons.
This training was conducted in two stages.
On the first day of December 13, we received a rich presentation on the situation of internally displaced persons. It appears from the interview that the displaced find themselves refugees in their own country, torn away from their lands, their resources, their habits, their neighborhood, their social landmarks: they face an anthropological poverty that affects their dignity. Pope Leo XIV invites us, as consecrated women, to incarnate the Gospel in the heart of human wounds. He also emphasizes that any encounter with these people is not just a charitable commitment but an encounter with Christ.
During this interview, some of us shared very moving experiences: these sharing that left no one indifferent were mixed with pain and helplessness in situations.
The next day, December 14, we went to GAMPELA, in the outskirts of Ouagadougou, to demonstrate our closeness to the internally displaced. We participated in the Sunday mass with them and then met them for an exchange in which they recognized the effort to help them but where they also expressed their difficulties, their need for listening. A few words from us encouraged them to Hope. Finally, we prayed with them and offered them some supplies and clothes. We could read on their faces the expression of gratitude and the feeling of consideration.
We came back from this meeting touched, challenged by what they were wearing, with a feeling of powerlessness that turned us towards God.
We say thank you to Sister Silvie ROAMBA who delegated us to represent the Daughters of the Holy Spirit at this edifying meeting which allows us to activate our missionary sensitivity in the face of the painful situations of life, for example, in 1706, by Marie BALAVENNE and Renée BUREL, our founders.
“We must hear the cry of the poor, make it ours… understanding, little by little, that it is all about living in communion with God and in solidarity with our brothers.
Rule of Life n°18, n° 4.
Sisters Béatrice COMPAORE and Nina SOME. Published on 6 January 2026
