"It is when each of us waits for the other to begin that nothing happens" (Abbé Pierre).

Fernand Nkéro played the national anthem of his country, Gabon, one night in July 2022, in Nairobi, Kenya. The warm joy he brought to thousands of his compatriots was followed by the cold shower of the words of the young freshly crowned African Judo champion of his category (-66 kg): for lack of means, he will not go to the world championships scheduled to take place a few days later, in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

And now, in one of the many forums where the Manibus TV report is being played over and over again, a chain of solidarity is being set up. Paul, Jacqueline, Ulrich, Roger, Hervé, Cathy and many others... Each one of them made a contribution, however modest it was. Including compatriots of what is called "the Gabonese diaspora" and probably some friends of Gabon of various nationalities.

Social networks sometimes work miracles. An oil company in the country's economic capital got involved; then another, a subsidiary of a multinational company that does, among other things, transport, logistics and communication. Phew! The account was there. Beyond expectations. 

The young athlete was able to compete with others of his age and category. He did not win, eliminated in the first round by disqualification because the referee felt he was not attacking enough. To win in his first world competition, without a coach to guide him, would have been miraculous, and probably not a good thing for the rest of his young career. You have to let things happen in their own time. He was learning.

And he will be for as long as it takes. But he is already a champion. What did the result matter? For the record, men and women from all over Gabon, and even the world, rose up to give this boy his chance.

"Boupendza was not out of the game". This is the title of a collection of short stories where a pleiad of Gabonese authors who, in order to discuss the injustices of our societies, took as a pretext a game fact that occurred on January 23, 2022, during the soccer match between Gabon and Burkina Faso counting for the eighth finals of the African Cup of Nations that was played in Cameroon.

On that day, Aaron Boupendza, a Gabonese striker, left his half of the field and was judged offside as he went to face the opposing keeper. Was he going to score and undoubtedly give the Gabonese team the victory? We'll never know: the referee didn't give him the chance to perhaps finish victoriously and qualify his nation.

How many are there, here or elsewhere, those who were not given the slightest chance? How many children from poor families, modestly qualified as economically weak, will never know the joy of attending a classroom and a playground? How many others, because they have disabilities, are kept out of sight and will never have the opportunity to show what they are capable of? And what about those babies sneakily tossed into a ditch or a trash can? Thirty-six weeks of pregnancy was not enough to convince mothers to give a chance to these living beings who did not ask to come into the world. It's really bad luck for them. And too unfair!

Maxime Le Forestier, French Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, proclaimed in one of his songs: "I want to leave this world regretting a little; I want to leave this world happy". And happiness, when you think about it, is so little. It is in the sparkling eyes of a child who brings back to his parents good grades, or in the dance steps that can be taken with an autistic child who has been taken out of his bubble.

To those, we gave them a chance.