Comparte members learn more about organic, sustainable agroecology methods in Santa Maria Nieve, Peru. Photo: Comparte
On International Mother Earth Day, April 22, Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) reaffirms its commitment to help care for our common home and to support poor and marginalized people who are being disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
CJI supports projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that help promote sustainable agriculture and livelihood that works for both people and the environment.
In Latin America, CJI partner Comparte works with small-scale farmers and social entrepreneurs from vulnerable communities who form a network to share resources and best practices on alternative and supportive socio-economic models. Comparte (which means “share”), which is run by the Jesuit Conference of Provincials in Latin America and the Caribbean, is comprised of 16 social justice organizations in 11 countries: Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Spain.
In Zambia, Jesuit-run Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC)’s agroecology education diploma program produced its first batch of graduates on April 13. KATC has been helping small-scale rural farmers and promoting organic agriculture since the 1990s.
Last October 4, on the feat of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis issued an apostolic exhortation, in which he lamented the “weakness of international politics” and lack of action by the world’s policymakers to address the climate crisis.
“Our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” he said in Laudate Deum, a follow up to Laudato Si, the encyclical letter on the environmental crisis, which he issued in 2015.
The climate crisis “is a global issue and one intimately related to the dignity of human life,” said the Pope. “Once and for all, let us put an end to the irresponsible derision that would present this issue as something purely ecological, “green”, romantic, frequently subject to ridicule by economic interests. Let us finally admit that it is a human and social problem on any number of levels. For this reason, it calls for involvement on the part of all.”
