Marie Roumy

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Marie Roumy (born January 14, 1924, in La Charité-sur-Loire, France; died February 23, 2013, in Douala, Cameroon) was a French and later Cameroonian religious sister.

Originally a teacher, she settled in the poor neighborhoods of Douala, where she improved sanitation, established schools, hospitals, a savings cooperative, provided jobs for young people, founded the Chain of Saint-Nicodème Homes for street children, training centers, and shelters for prostitutes.

Marie Roumy was born on January 14, 1924, in the hamlet of Sainte-Hélène near La Charité-sur-Loire, in the department of Nièvre.^[1]

After becoming a religious sister, she moved to Cameroon and began teaching at a missionary school in Douala, the capital, in 1949.^[2] She later became the director of this school but eventually handed over her responsibilities to the local Cameroonian population and began teaching in the poor neighborhoods.^[2]

With the permission of her religious order, Marie Roumy settled in Nkongmondo, a poor neighborhood of Douala.^[2] She provided education to the women of this neighborhood for three years.^[2] In 1975, she paused her teaching to return to France for training in popular education.^[2]

Returning to Douala in 1978, she settled in the Nylon neighborhood, another poor area of the capital.^[2] She organized the sanitation of the roads, their drainage to prevent flooding, and their improvement, initially through artisanal means and later with government support.^[2] She secured external aid, particularly from the World Bank and the Swiss government, to finance infrastructure, schools, and hospitals in the neighborhood.^[2]

She also organized a savings cooperative, the Caisse Populaire de Nylon (CPN), and helped employ many young unemployed people.^[2]

Marie Roumy was very involved with street children.^[1][2] In 1986, she obtained Cameroonian nationality and, in 1995, founded the Chain of Saint-Nicodème Homes for street children with Jean-Duc Keutcha, himself a former street child.^[3] She also organized training centers for them in crafts.^[2]

Marie Roumy created centers for welcoming, listening to, and sheltering prostituted girls.^[2]

In early 2013, Marie Roumy was injured while trying to protect a young person during a brawl, and she later fell ill.^[1] She died a few weeks later, on February 23, 2013, in a clinic in Douala.^[1] She was buried on February 27, 2013.^[1]

• Odile Foch (1999). Soeur Marie Roumy. Éditions du Signe. ISBN 9782877187466.

• Chain of Saint-Nicodème Homes
• Street children