A man, simple, small in stature, with the weight of age beginning to be felt, but still lively, passionate, and still just as busy: he is in Rome for several meetings, among which a conference with the San Egidio community. La Nocetta, where he resides for the occasion, witnesses the comings and goings of people he meets one after the other. That person is Grégoire AHONGBONON, the friend of people suffering from psychiatric illnesses.

This is the first time I meet this man I have heard so much about. And after meeting him, one cannot but only be captivated by his zeal.

In his busy schedule, we manage to get a few words from him.

He tells us about his current project in Dassa Zoumè (Benin Republic). A center for drug addicts, but drug addicts developing psychiatric illnesses, he strongly underlines.

Why a special center for this group of people when there are already a small number of centers people suffering from psychiatric illnesses?

It should be noted that Grégoire with the Saint Camille group has 11 centers, spread over four countries: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo.

For Grégoire, the reason for a special center for drug addicts in Dassa Zoumè is clear: not only among the psychiatrically ill who find themselves in these centers, many are those who suffer from drug addiction, drugs having taken a terrible twist in our African countries; but even more, the management of this group of people with all the other patients is more difficult. There is a risk of initiating other patients into drug consumption; hence the need for a special center.

The center under construction will be used to accommodate no less than 200 people.

The drug addicts to whom Grégoire wants to give a special attention to are regarded as good for nothing, as people who are lost. But for Grégoire: “no one is lost for God. Many of these people that we see in the street, naked, abandoned can come back to life; many are able to restart anew. The proof is that many of these patients are cured; and once cured, they are the ones who take care of the other patients. So we have a responsibility towards them.”

For him, he adds, “if the Church does nothing for these people, it is not the local authorities who will do something. It is the least of their worries. These people were not born sick, they were born like everyone and their desire is to live like everyone else. ”

In all the work he does, his source of joy he says “is to see these people recover and be whole again.”

This, however, is not without difficulty. One of the major difficulties is the lack of real support. “Everyone is applauding you, congratulating you”, he says, “and that is it. The most painful thing is that even international organizations are not interested in people suffering from psychiatric illnesses. When you present a project and direct it to international organizations, they tell you if it were street children, minors, or about AIDS… we could have done something. But for people suffering from psychiatric illnesses we have nothing. That is the real problem. But as I always say, God should be trusted. God takes always care of his poor. There were men and women who trusted in divine providence, who did extraordinary things that remain a story. If they did it with God, it is not then today that God will abandon us. I have confidence, I am not afraid.”

Grégoire has been caring for more than 30 years for people suffering from psychiatric illnesses in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and other neighboring countries. The “forgottens of the forgotten”, as he calls them.

He is leading the fight of a lifetime: for 30 years, he has been fighting to restore their dignity to these men and women.

Brice Ulrich AFFERI