The past year provided new challenges for CJI and its international Jesuit partners. We continue to accompany poor and marginalized people in Africa, Asia and Latin America in addressing poverty, human rights violations, environmental degradation, civil unrest and forcible displacement. Now, we also stand in solidarity with them as we confront the long-term impacts of the pandemic and climate change, neither of which recognize borders. Yet, those in the margins of society remain the most vulnerable.

Because of your generosity, we were able to support 40 projects in the past year, focusing on agriculture and livelihood; education; human rights; and humanitarian response to global and regional crises.

We also strengthened our education and advocacy work within Canada, focusing on human rights and the extractive industry; civil unrest and forcible displacement; and climate justice. We engaged with secondary students in-person and online. An online Advocacy Symposium presented a unique opportunity for students to listen to voices from Canada and the Global South and to interact with one another.

We hosted a webinar on vaccine equity featuring diverse voices from different parts of the world. Finally, our Christmas concert brought together 180 people who listened to the challenges, hopes and dreams of our partners and the communities they work with expressed in song, dance and poetry.

In 2021, we never wavered in our commitment to justice, solidarity, peace and the care for our common home.