“Teaching to fish is better than giving fish.” A well-known adage of wisdom that characterises Pax Christi International’s peace education activities: training the staff of member organisations to acquire new skills in order to respond, not to the needs of the market, but to their own needs, such as access to water. This is a long-term strategy that Pax Christi International is implementing to help build more peaceful societies. Focus on a project that is coming to an end in the Central African Republic.

In the Central African Republic, only one person in three has access to drinking water, and there is little local training to ensure that wells are properly maintained and water purified, as well as to raise awareness of water-related diseases.

At the end of January 2025, Pax Christi France and Pax Christi International – in collaboration with the UNESCO working group on ‘access to water for all in Africa’ and the Centre Catholique International de Coopération – launched the XXth class of hydrologist trainees in Burkina Faso at the 2IE International Training Centre in Ouagadougou.

Twenty-five NGO professionals from five West African countries (Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Benin, Mali and Mauritania) benefited from three weeks of intensive teaching and field work modules to teach them how to handle the equipment needed to build and maintain wells (probes, water PH calculation kits, repair tools, etc.).

Pax Christi France and Pax Christi International, the referents for the Central African Republic, sent four trainees working for local NGOs in four remote rural areas (including the villages of Sibut, Bouar, Batangafo, Baoro, Béloko, Cantonnier, Abba and Bouar). Some of these areas are between 6 and 10 hours’ drive from the capital Bangui.

As the training course draws to a close on 14 February, the trainees cannot hide their joy and gratitude at having acquired high-quality knowledge, which they will then be responsible for passing on to others once they return home.

The next training session will take place in 2027, and we hope to be able to welcome new beneficiary countries to the project.

By Bérengère Savélieff, Pax Christi International Representative to UNESCO and Pax Christi France Peace Education Officer.