Students at St. Peter Claver Ecological and Computer Centre, a project of the The Jesuits Eastern Africa Province (AOR) in Rumbek, South Sudan. CJI is supporting various AOR projects, including a skills training program for youth. Photo: Fr Wanyonyi Eric Simiyu SJ
The Board of Trustees of Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) has approved 12 new projects that range from providing quality education for economically disadvantaged students in Mumbai, support for agroecology education in Zambia, to enhancing the safety net for Tigray refugees in Kenya.
The project, Care for our common home and the community social fabric, presented by the Latin American conference of Provincials, aims to strengthen leadership, especially among Indigenous women, so that their wisdom, spirituality and ancestral ecological knowledge can contribute to enhancing community relations and care for the environment. RSAI The Latin American Network of Indigenous Solidarity and Apostolate (RSAI) will implement the project from 2023-2025. RSAI includes lay and religious representatives from Indigenous territories in of Latin America with a Jesuit presence: Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Chile.
Restore hope to the Tigrays in Kenya, a project by Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) Kenya, will develop community support networks for Tigrayan refugees living in Kenya, build refugees’ skills and knowledge, increase access to basic relief support, and offer psychosocial first aid, among other things.
About 210 children who live in extreme poverty in Honduras will be provided with educational kits, school uniforms and musical instruction to support their education under a project of the sisters of Notre Dame in San Ignacio de Loyola Parish, El Progreso Yoro.
Sowing Seeds for Social Transformation in South Sudan will support various Jesuit projects, including an agricultural initiative in Rumbek to improve food security and self-reliance among women and children, a skills training program for youth, building the leadership capacity of people in communities, among other things.
The Agroecology Education Project of the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) aims to educate young Zambians to become “champions in agroecology.” The project will provide rural students from poor communities with access to formal education in organic agriculture through bursaries.
Jesuit-run Centre Maisha in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will work to increase access to water, sanitation and hygiene in 20 primary schools and to reduce the vulnerability of people living with HIV-AIDS to Covid-19. Activities will include rehabilitation of water points and latrines, financial support and training to people living with HIV-AIDS, among other things.
A project by St. Stanislaus High School, a Jesuit-run school in Mumbai, India, aims to provide quality education to economically and socially disadvantaged students by upgrading its infrastructure, including its digital equipment. It will offer training to its teachers to improve their methodologies.
The Wheelchair Project of Metta Karuna, a project of Jesuit Service Cambodia, will provide wheelchairs and livelihood support to persons with disabilities (PWD) in Siem Reap and in Kampong Thom. The goal is to help improve the mobility of PWDs and open opportunities for them to work.
The Medical Education Scholarship Program of the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the Philippines will offer financial support to medical students in need, and train professional doctors and leaders who can help influence health policy and development in their own region.
Aside from the approved project, CJI is supporting work in response to the February 2023 earthquake in Syria, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine resulting from the Russian invasion in 2022, and the 2021 earthquake in Haiti.
