European Parliament - Third United Nations
Conference on Least Developed Countries
in Brussels, Belgium - May 14-20, 2001

FRATERNITE NOTRE DAME’s DECLARATION

Fraternite Notre Dame® is glad to present its declaration, dealing with a subject dear to its heart, and of which it is fully aware: poorest, or “less advanced” countries.

Less advanced countries are much more numerous than the countries called “developed”.

The first question that comes to our mind, is to know what is meant by “less advanced countries”. For, is not it pejorative to name bluntly as “less advanced”, an entire country, that is, with its culture, its history, its physical, moral and spiritual riches?
We should rather call such countries “less privileged”, as they are not fully responsible for their lot, but in fact, to some extend, they have to deal with it. Numerous factors, independent from their own will, such as war, political despotism, natural catastrophes and more, have contributed to impoverishing them considerably. Misery, so to speak, as taken over little by little, and it never ceases increasing every day.
In order to make the voice of such suffering countries heard, we shall cite as examples those countries where Fraternite Notre Dame has established permanent or punctual missions: that is, Haiti, Niger, Cameroon,

Mongolia, Rwanda, Romania, former Yugoslavia, Albania, Kosovo and El Salvador. These Missions have been made possible thanks to the good care and efforts of Fraternite Notre Dame’s founder, the Most Reverend Bishop Jean Marie Roger Kozik.
In these our present times, when computers and high tech allows us to communicate and make science advance prodigiously, we have to admit that an imbalance of powers exists when it comes to nations, and that some of them live under the dominion of others.
We shall be ashamed to know that a barrier exists. An invisible barrier between wealthy countries, conveniently settled in comfort and abundance, and the countries in the “other world”, the one of starving children begging in the streets, of illiterate teens, of dying and neglected elderly persons, of entire sections of the population decimated by sickness, caused only by a lack of hygiene… and of so many other afflicting situations, borne by this our earth, as so many horrid wounds.
This cry of injustice, we would like to make it heard, for it is unworthy of humanity, unworthy of our great plans for social aid, of our common will to march towards a better world.

I. Less advanced countries in terms of Health Care:

Let us first speak of health. If it is fitting to say that health is priceless, we may also remark here that the cost of health care is more accessible to some people than to others.
Obviously, a patient afflicted with AIDS and living in a neglected area in a developed country is much more likely to survive and live longer than a person with AIDS who resides, for instance, in an African country.
What can be said of the state of hospitals in developing countries? Quite often, even basic medical equipment and supplies are lacking. As for medicine, it is so scarce that each piece has to be counted, and paid immediately by the patients.
Poor people who contracted a serious illness, aware that health care is much too expensive for them, prefer to just wait for death.
Fraternite Notre Dame is confronted daily to the problem of healthcare for the poorest of the poor. In all its humanitarian missions, its members distribute hundreds and hundreds of pounds of medicine free of charge for both the children and adults. But its action would be even more efficient if it were in a position to obtain more pharmaceutical or surgical products.
However, Fraternite Notre Dame’s action is very positive, and we shall mention here the example of our hospital for the very needy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The 65-bed hospital is reserved for all those who have been cast aside by so many other health facilities, because they could not afford it.
There again, we can witness that people in less advanced countries, because most of them are living under the poverty line, are suffering from this lack of medical care opportunities.
Fraternite Notre Dame’s Charity Hospital in Mongolia welcomes everyone, with no distinction whatsoever, and provides the care and surgical interventions needed to a growing number of people on a daily basis.

II. Less advanced countries in terms of Education:

Much should be said on the education discrepancies that are noticed between developed and developing countries.
It has to be admitted that learning how to read cannot be taken for granted by all children in the world. However, every child should be given access to education, an education in his or her own language, culture and history.
In countries where the youth are not raised properly, where they are not fed, how can we envision a responsible future for the nation? Ignorance begets a passive submission and increases social inequalities.
Corruption, which rules so strongly, for instance in some African countries, would not be so well settled if every layer of society would have fair access to education. For knowledge leads man upward and causes him to anticipate his future.
From this very fact, we could easily assume that less developed countries are the victims of our so rapidly evolving world. Emerging weaker to face the outside world, their natural riches are being exploited, while they do not directly benefit from them; their culture is being lost, their future closes up.

III. Less advanced countries in terms of social development:

In today’s world, where modernization has reached high levels of sophistication, where no-thing is lacking to our so-called “civilized countries”, we notice that the poorest of the poor do not benefit from such progress.
We see entire sections in some peoples, afflicted by unemployment, hopeless to ever improve their situation, and large cities where the homeless population increases every day.
Misery begets various consequences: shameful exploitation of children, clandestine labor, prostitution, human organ traffics, child slave trade, and so many other terrible things.
It seems that less advanced countries are increasingly stricken by the plague of unemployment, immoral behaviors, malnutrition and all forms of desolation. How could we tolerate such atrocities? How can some people tolerate misery without reacting and taking action against it?
Fraternite Notre Dame, along with so many other NGOs throughout the world, feeds, welcomes, gives warmth to these unfortunate persons, the homeless, those whom the present world has forgotten.

IV. From the point of view of moral and spiritual values:

When dealing with civilization, we expect to discourse on moral values, accepted beliefs and religious institutions.
Spiritual and moral values have always contributed to hold society together, and have caused it to evolve and prosper materially. The history of civilizations shows us that the family is a pillar of society. Helping the elderly was one of its sacred principles. Older generations would teach younger ones.
Thus, the collapse of the basic unit, which is the family, caused by migrations, fratricidal wars, exodus to cities, has led to an ever growing accumulation of suffering for the most destitute. Needy, elderly persons no longer get any help from their children or grand children.
The youth no longer receive any good example from older persons. Finally, both the children and the elderly are at risk regarding homelessness, or of being reduced to begging their subsistence in the street.
One of the major causes of such a social regression is the disappearance of spiritual values. No more mutual aid, no more active charity; these were the nerves and blood of our civilizations.
A well-practiced religion has to be lived out in action, that is, expressed by loving others, performing humanitarian assistance towards weaker members of society. How can we boost to be a “civilized country”, when we leave our neighbor wailing in the dust, and dying in the cold or from starvation?
Nevertheless, some religious institutions have acted in such a wrong, terrible way that, in order to secure their temporal power, they have maintained peoples in poverty and ignorance.
Genuine religion must lead to tolerance, dedication to one’s neighbor, compassion, and relie-ving poverty.

In conclusion, we may say that less advanced, or less developed countries will only be in a position to slowly recover from their many ailments, when they actually receive help from a cooperative hand reaching out to them, when their youth receive an education, when dignity is restored to the elderly, when the active population are given jobs, etc.
The work that is to be realized here at the conference in Brussels represents another step towards the advancement of peoples.
Indeed, all of us, we refuse to see children, dying from the cold, starving families, sinking into all forms of distress, entire sections of a particular population, living in slums.
All, we want to witness renewal, for a more worthy life, for a truly human existence, thanks to genuine efforts of solidarity, with no distinction of race, sex, class or creed.
Now, let us all take advantage of these words from Saint Francis of Assisi:

“Lord, make of us instruments of Peace.”

[End of Declaration]