CJI contributed $50,000 to emergency relief for earthquake victims as part of the coordinated effort of the Xavier Network, the global Jesuit network of mission and international development offices. Photo: Jesuit Mission Australia
The Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) Board of Directors approved 18 projects on May 3, including an Indigenous Research Methodology workshop for 32 young Indian scholars and a program to protect community leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia.
Also approved were CJI’s contribution to emergency relief for earthquake victims in Myanmar ($50,000) and support for CJI partners Jesuit Refugee Service and Fe y Alegria, whose programs were both heavily affected by recent US aid cuts ($206,916). CJI is coordinating its responses to these two programs with the Xavier Network, the Jesuit network of mission and international development offices across Europe, North America, and Australia.
The approved projects with CJI’s Jesuit partners in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean total $959,322 in funding.
The Indian Social Institute of Social Sciences (ISI) project on Indigenous Research Methodology will enable participants to learn about the importance and scope of this process in social science research and to conduct research from the perspective of Indigenous peoples. They will also have the opportunity to develop their own research. During the workshop, participants will learn about various aspects of Indigenous people’s lives, cultures, beliefs, practices, rituals, philosophies and worldviews. Approximately 95% of the participants will come from Indigenous communities in India. Workshops will be led by local Indigenous academics and researchers, and two resource persons from Australia and Canada. CJI is contributing $15,598 to this project.
CJI is also contributing $40,000 for a project to ensure the safety and well-being of human rights defenders and community leaders, an initiative of the Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), a social center of the Society of Jesus in Colombia that focuses on research, advocacy and education on social issues. The project is especially important now, as violence and threats against human rights and humanitarian workers are on the rise in Colombia and the region.
The other projects approved by the Board include:
- Inclusive education and livelihood for Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese in Bourj Hammoud (Jesuit Refugee Service Lebanon/Middle East and North Africa)
- Strengthening integral ecology education for the care of our common home in the Amazon
- Immediate basic needs of returnees and deportees, Panama (Fe y Alegria Panama, RJM-CANA)
- Livelihood support and capacity-building programs for tea plantation workers in North Bengal, India (Human Life Research and Development Centre)
- Empowering youth for justice, peace, and sustainable development (IMCS Pax Romana)
- Wheelchair project, Metta Karuna, Cambodia (Jesuit Service Cambodia)
- Strengthening and empowering communities affected by climate change in Kajiado county, Kenya (Jesuit Eastern Africa Province, AOR )
