A school for peace in Zing

In addition to purely educational activities, a path to promote peace and dialogue will be proposed to counteract the violence that results from intolerance and fundamentalism.

The construction and implementation in 1980 of the Saint Augustine Primary School Zing, in a remote area in Taraba State by the Order of Saint Augustine in Nigeria, had the objective of promoting an educational program among the poorest in the in order to eliminate the main causes that cause intolerance and fundamentalism: ignorance.

Unfortunately, the city of Zing and the entire Tararaba Region continue to record rates of absolute poverty and acts of unprecedented violence against the defenseless population. Even in this area the Boko Haram terrorist group is massacring thousands of civilians, attacking them in their homes, in markets, in areas of worship and, unfortunately, in schools. Many families therefore prefer to keep their children at home out of understandable fear. Obviously, those most affected by this situation are children and young people, the same young people who usually participate in inter-ethnic and inter-religious fighting.

The Augustinians consider education an extraordinary weapon against all forms of violence and which will help the country to rebuild peace and proceed with a development path that was drastically interrupted.

The project plans to build new classrooms and assist at least 400 children (15% Muslim and 85% Christian) and thus increase the number of students at school with particular attention to girls.

All this will also be done in collaboration with other schools in the area which will use the same method and the same “Manual for Peace” drawn up by the Augustinian friars.