Pieter Niemeyer, Outreach
Coordinator of CJI, conducts an online session with students. Photo: M. Palacio/CJI

COVID-19 has forced Canada’s education system to adapt to limited in-person learning. CJI, through the leadership of its Outreach Coordinator, Pieter Niemeyer, has risen to this challenge. Through a series of online presentations to secondary schools, he brought front and centre the struggles for social justice of people and communities in the Global South by inviting CJI’s partners in Africa and Latin America to speak on current issues: COVID-19 vaccine equity with Fr Charles Chilufya SJ of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar; the impact of COVID-19 on forced displacement with Fr Eduardo Soto SJ, Jesuit Refugee Service Venezuela; and the impacts of Canadian mining operations on marginalized communities in the Dominican Republic with Heriberta Fernández, Centro Montalvo.