By Pieter Niemeyer

A major highlight of 2024 was the hosting of CJI's third Youth for Others (Y4O) Advocacy Symposium - April 21to 23 - which brought together youth from across Canada under the theme Education: Your Right, Our Future.

The event featured powerful speakers who addressed issues such as barriers to girls' education, the intersection of resource extraction and education, and the impact of racialization on students in Canada. Through hands-on training and engagement with Canadian parliamentarians, participants learned advocacy tools to pressure Canada to fulfill its commitment to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda on gender equality and quality education.

Y4O Advocacy Symposium participants came from four different Canadian provinces and included four Jesuit schools, as well as secondary and post-secondary students from across Canada. One participating chaplain said, “Thank you for an inspiring, transformative conference, we can't wait to bring more students”

Noluthando Honono, the keynote speaker at the symposium, also embarked on a speaking tour on behalf of CJI, with stops in Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph and Winnipeg. Honono is an education activist who has worked with Jesuits and developed a proposal for a post-COVID-19 return to school program for South Africa, with a particular focus on girls' education. Honono highlighted the economic and gender barriers that prevent girls from accessing their right to education.

Another focus of CJI 2024's outreach work has been the issue of forced migration. Last fall, over 600 students participated in various events such as retreats and Y4O Social Justice Days, which raised awareness about forced migration through a variety of interactive activities that were both informative and engaging.

CJI webinars in 2024

As part of its efforts to advocate for social issues that are affecting the communities served by its international partners, Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) hosted three webinars in 2024.

On March 21, CJI and the Arthur V. Mauro Institute for Peace and Justice at St. Paul’s College, Winnipeg, hosted Cobalt Blues: The politics of resource extraction and education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On October 22, Fr. Dan Corrou, SJ, regional director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the Middle East and North Africa (JRS-MENA), reported live from Beirut on the humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

On November 5, CJI co-hosted Forced to Flee: People and Rights Under Threat, which examined the root causes of forced migration and how the human rights of migrants and refugees are being violated following the rise of popularism and nationalism worldwide.