From Lomé: communication born in our communities

From October 20 to 23, 2026, the provincial house of the Comboni Missionaries in Lomé became a small production studio. Twenty-two participants, animators and communicators from the Togo-Ghana-Benin province, spent four days of hands-on training with us. Smartphones in hand, microphones on, laptops open late into the evening.

I led the training together with two highly skilled African colleagues: Charles Ayetan, a Togolese journalist, and Jacob Brahim Konfé, a UI/UX and motion designer from Burkina Faso. Our goal was simple and ambitious: to enable everyone to produce multimedia content for social media and for the communication of their communities and province, including with artificial intelligence tools.

Four days, from pen to studio

On the first day we started with the basics: writing for the web, interviews and reporting, then smartphone filming — framing, sound, light — and editing with CapCut and Canva.

The second day was devoted to artificial intelligence. We began with ethics: truth, copyright, deepfakes, and the Church's responsibility. Then came the art of prompting, with Gemini and NotebookLM, and finally AI agents to automate repetitive tasks, with a practical workshop.

On the third day we created for social media: designing and recording audio and video podcasts, music and voice with AI — jingles, theme tunes, voice-overs, audio translation — and planning a video programme, with a running order and filming in groups.

On the last day the groups produced their programmes. We watched the videos together and closed with the presentation of certificates.

What I saw

I was delighted to witness the twenty-two participants' passion for digital communication. It was not passing curiosity: it was a desire to learn, to try, to make mistakes and to start again.

Above all, I discovered creative abilities and real talent among the Comboni confreres. One had a natural eye for framing, another a voice made for radio, another a striking instinct for storytelling. Within a few hours, many moved from being spectators of communication to being its authors. The programmes produced on Friday prove it: true stories, told by those who live them.

This confirms a conviction I have carried for years, since my service in Chad: mission already holds its own communicators. They simply need tools, trust and a space to share.

Towards shared, decentralised communication

The Lomé training also supports a larger idea: a common content-sharing platform — news, testimonies, videos, podcasts, photos — for all the French-speaking Comboni provinces.

My wish is that the provinces of Togo-Ghana-Benin, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo may begin a true journey of transformation in communication. A journey that moves from print alone to a platform that shares. No longer a few writing for many, but many telling the story together: decentralised communication, where every community becomes a newsroom and every confrere a witness who knows how to tell the story.

In Lomé, this journey has begun. Twenty-two people have already shown it is possible.

Fr. Fabrizio Colombo, MCCJ
President of CREC International