As poverty and population continue to grow, and climate change escalates worldwide, sustained efforts that will address these major challenges are more crucial than ever.

Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) and its partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America help tackle these issues through innovative projects that promote sustainable agriculture and livelihood. These projects, which CJI supports, help poor and marginalized communities break free from poverty, achieve food security and self-reliance, and care for our common home.

Here are some highlights:

In Zambia, Jesuit-run Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre has successfully launched its agroecology education diploma program, and, with CJI’s support, it has been able to provide poor and promising students with bursaries so they can get formal education in organic agriculture. Kasisi has been promoting organic agriculture since the 1990s. Founded in 1974 by Canadian Jesuit Br Paul Desmarais SJ, who died in 2023, the centre promotes faith and justice by training small-scale rural farmers and offering capacity-building programs.

CJI partner Comparte helped an estimated 49,500 people, many of them small-scale rural farmers and social entrepreneurs from marginalized communities, through the sharing of resources and techniques on alternative socio-economic models. Comparte is a network of the Jesuit Conference of Provincials in Latin America and the Caribbean and includes social justice organizations in Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Spain. It aims to strengthen knowledge sharing among organizations in the continent who have been involved for decades with the local production of organic coffee, cacao, honey, cheese, and other products, with a view to develop strategies for alternative economic development.

The St. Alphonsus Social and Agricultural Centre and the Society of Jesus Agricultural and Social Institute serve the poorest of the poor in Kurseong and Chimney, India. In the last fiscal year, 150 families benefitted from its programs, including organic agriculture training, workshops on floriculture, small-scale piggery, poultry, and dairy enterprises.