This Wednesday afternoon took place, at the Parliament of the Walloon Federation-Brussels, the opening of the exhibition of the athlete Cynthia Bolingo. A committed exhibition that the Brussels champion realized with children of the Petit-Château and the Cité Joyeuse in Molenbeek. It was also an opportunity for her to make a vibrant plea for tolerance.

A few days before her departure for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Cynthia Bolingo invited her friends, family and sports personalities such as Lola Mansour, Bea Diallo and Thierry Witsel to discover the results of her work with young children. Children that life has not always spoiled. "We created drawings with them. On the basis of these, flags were created. And it is precisely these flags, resulting from their imagination, that are exhibited. It is a human project above all. The goal was to give space to the imagination of these children. This exhibition was made possible thanks to the ASBL MômA in Tournai and we were lucky enough to be welcomed by the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. A Parliament that was represented by its president, Rudy Demotte and by Valérie Glatigny, the Minister of Sports.

Cynthia Bolingo, for her part, is a committed athlete. "I love to give my time and energy in concrete things, projects that are close to my heart," she confirms. "And this was a project that fit me well because my target audience is young people".

The meaning of the white line on the chin

The proof of her commitment to society is in her flesh, because during each competition, she draws this famous white line on her chin. This makes it her distinctive sign. "In our society, we are constantly required to choose between one thing or the other," she explains. "You are a man or a woman. You are black or white, beautiful or ugly, smart or not. You're always on one side or the other of the white line. But for me, these oppositions are paradoxically complementary. If, in the space of a few days, we managed, with the little bits of the Petit-Château and the Cité Joyeuse to, create a kind of colored confederation, I think that in one year, we would have been able to create a rainbow world. A rainbow country, without borders. A country without white lines, except on my face during competitions (smile)."

A commitment that she hopes to make even more radiant in a few weeks at the start of the various races in the Land of the Rising Sun.

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