As I reflect on the past year at Canadian Jesuits International (CJI), I am filled with gratitude and hope. This may seem naïve given that during this same period new wars erupted, and other conflicts continued, killing thousands and displacing millions; climate change fueled devastating disasters, including wildfires in Canada; and a growing number of people suffered from hunger and injustice. Closer to home, Juan López, a catechist in a Jesuit parish in Tocoa, Honduras, and a close associate of CJI partner organization ERIC/Radio Progreso, was murdered in September for defending the land and his community. 

But as I reflect on the continued trust that you, our supporters, have placed in CJI and the unwavering commitment of our partners to serve and work with the poor and marginalized in their midst, sometimes at the cost of their own lives, I am more hopeful about the prospects for real change.  

Together with our 37 Jesuit partners in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, CJI has directly served more than 40,000 people in 16 countries through 43 projects focused on the right to education; ecology and sustainability; human rights, civic participation and peacebuilding; and the rights of forcibly displaced people, and humanitarian assistance. 

In September, CJI International Programs Coordinator Juan Emilio Hernandez and I traveled to El Salvador to attend the assembly of CJI partner Comparte, a network of the Conference of the Jesuit Provincials of Latin America and the Caribbean, that includes social justice organizations in 11 countries. We saw the tireless and passionate commitment of Comparte members to providing alternative socio-economic models to improve the lives of the poor. We met community members supported by Comparte, including the women of Guaymango Jujutla Ahuachapan, who have formed a cooperative to produce and sell chicken feed. 

With forced migration becoming one of the most critical issues of our time, CJI also hosted a webinar looking at how the human rights of refugees and migrants are being undermined as they are increasingly manipulated by state and non-state actors.  

Last fall, CJI’s Board of Trustees approved a strategic plan that will guide our work in the next four years.  This was an opportunity to take stock of what we have accomplished in the last few years and to discern how we can be faithful to our mission and to the mission of the Society of Jesus and its four Universal Apostolic Preferences. We identified priorities that will guide our work as we respond to the needs and aspirations of people who live on the margins of society. 

There are other developments to share. I invite you to read all the stories in this issue to learn more about how, with your support and the work of our partners alongside vulnerable communities, we are in our own way bringing dignity and hope to our broken world.