Intervention by Natacha Mugisi Tchitembo during the Action and Contemplation weekend organised by House of Compassion at the Rock-in-Squat.
Dear members of House of Compassion,
Dear participants,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I thank you for the invitation extended to me today.
Your institution bears a powerful name: House of Compassion,
A house, and a compassion.
Two words which, for us, women without papers, are not concepts but vital needs.
In the Christian tradition, compassion is not an emotion; it is a responsibility.
Today, I come to speak to you on behalf of the Committee of Women without Papers, of which I am one of the spokespersons,
On behalf of the collective The Echo of the Voice, which I founded,
On behalf of the occupation The Divine Grace, of which I am the initiator and coordinator,
And on behalf of all those who are not seen, but whom God has never ceased to see.
The lived reality of women without papers:
A question of human dignity
The Church reminds us that
every person is created in the image of God.
And yet, in our societies,
women and children live without recognition,
without security,
without rights.
To be a woman without papers
is to live in daily fear:
fear of controls,
fear of denunciation,
fear of deportation.
Socially,
we often work in essential
but invisible sectors:
care, cleaning, support.
Culturally,
we are reduced to silence.
Our voices are not considered legitimate.
Politically,
we are absent from decision-making spaces,
even though decisions affect us directly.
This reality is not only social.
It is moral.
It is spiritual.
Speech as a path to liberation
In the Bible,
God always begins by hearing the cry.
“I have seen the misery of my people,
I have heard their cry.”
(Exodus 3:7)
We too cried out.
But for a long time, no one listened.
That is why we chose to speak collectively.
Speech became for us an act of liberation,
an act of faith,
an act of non-violent resistance.
The Invisibles:
When singing becomes prayer and protest
This is how the Committee’s choir was born:
The Invisibles
In the Christian tradition,
singing is a prayer.
But it is also a proclamation.
Our songs are contemporary psalms.
They speak of exile,
of waiting,
of hope.
When we sing in public space, we do what the prophets did: we remind society of its responsibilities.
Art and conscience: the undocumented candidacy
Our path crossed that of the artist Anna Rispoli.
With her,
we took part in a powerful action:
the symbolic candidacy
of a woman without papers,
a role I embodied,
“The mayor of the twentieth commune” during the municipal elections.
This action raised a deeply ethical question:
Can we speak of justice when part of the population has no political voice?
This artistic gesture opened a space for reflection,
not against institutions,
but to awaken consciences.
We also wrote a memorandum in which you can find our various demands.
A home for women and children: The Divine Grace
In my Christian tradition,
the home is a sacred place.
Faced with the precariousness of the women of the Committee
and their children,
the idea was born to create a space of welcome, safety, and rebuilding.
This is how The Divine Grace came into being.
This name expresses our deep conviction:
dignity is not earned,
it is given by God.
The Echo of the Voice: Making the Invisible resonate within institutions
The collective The Echo of the Voice was created so that our words would not remain confined.
An echo
is a voice that passes through walls.
In this spirit, we met
seven mayors,
not in a logic of confrontation,
but of responsible dialogue.
We presented them with a clear project:
– the need for a building,
– a dignified place,
– a space of shared humanity.
Conclusion
A call to active compassion
I will end with a call.
Compassion is not only a feeling.
It is a commitment.
Today,
we are not asking the Church to speak in our place.
We are asking it to walk with us.
Because every invisible woman is a sister.
Because every child without safety is a child of God.
We are here.
We exist.
And we will continue to make the echo of the voice heard.
Thank you.
Photo of the choir of the Committee of Women without Papers during the closing of the “Action and Contemplation” reflection days organised by House of Compassion on 9 and 10 January 2026 at Rock-in-Squat.
