ROME – The president of the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic movement started in Rome in 1968, has embarked upon a landmark trip to the Great Lakes region of Africa. Marco Impagliazzo is due to visit Burundi and Rwanda in order to deepen the iconic organisation’s understanding of the problems afflicting some of the countries’ most afflicted areas, many of which remain torn by longstanding tribal rivalries and religious tensions. The Community of Sant’Egidio was originally started in Rome in 1968 in the period following the Second Vatican Council. Founder Andrea Riccardi invited a group of highschool students like himself to take part in meetings in which the Gospels were discussed and their principles put into practice. One of the Community’s first acts was to visit the slums on the outskirts of Rome, where an afternoon school catering for disadvantaged children was eventually opened. It now comprises over 60,000 members from over 70 countries. Impagliazzo first called upon Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, where he met other Sant’Egidio members from seven different cities, including representatives from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over 700 people attended a conference presided over by the president to celebrate the signing of the “Accordo di Sede”, or “Headquarters Agreement”, made between the Republic of Burundi and the Community of Sant’Egidio. In the document, the Burundian government officially recognised the peace-keeping work carried out by members of the Sant’Egidio movement in the region. Sant’Egidio began to target Burundi in 1988 and worked tirelessly with its inhabitants to re-establish harmony, culminating in 2005 with the signing of a significant peace agreement which was overseen by Nelson Mandela. The Catholic movement also supported the country’s campaign to abolish capital punishment, which was achieved four years ago. Impagliazzo attended the opening of a care home for the vulnerable elderly, financed by donations made over the Easter period by Sant’Egidio members from all around the world. The president of the Community then visited Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, where 500 young people were gathered from different areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These adolescents had been selected for their commitment to helping the poor and elderly, whose position in Congolese society is particularly fragile. Impagliazzo met with inmates from the juvenile section of a Bukavu prison before talking to a group of street children who were under the tutelage of local members of the Sant’Egidio movement.