Chicken coop and Breakfast program for dormitory students in Timor-Leste
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Thanks to your generosity, 81 students in Railaco,
Timor-Leste no longer attend school on an empty stomach.
Beginning in 2020, a grassroots chicken coop and breakfast program is supporting the healthy development and independence of dormitory students at Jesuit-run secondary school NOSSEF (Escola Secundaria Católica Nossa Senhora de Fátima).
[quotes]“Before we had difficulties with our food since there are 40 of us in the (girls) dormitory. But now we have breakfast every day and we also eat chicken, fish, tempe or tofu for lunch and dinner.”[/quotes]
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[quotes_author color="#000"] Antegracia, a student of the girls dormitory. [/quotes_author]
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Dormitory students started
the school day without breakfast and would wait until lunch to receive food
from the school canteen. Due to hunger, students found it harder to concentrate
during classes and were more prone to illness.
There were also concerns that the students' limited diet of plain rice and fried bok choy would not address their need for protein or other nutrients and could stunt their physical development.
Juvenido
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Now with the chicken coop and vegetable gardens, students can rear chickens for their eggs and meat, allowing them to prepare healthier food for themselves, without financial concerns.
[quotes]“This program is beneficial to all of us in this dormitory. We started with only a few chickens but now have around one hundred.” [/quotes]
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[quotes_author color="#000"] Juvenido, a student of the boys dormitory. [/quotes_author]
The recently constructed boys dormitory on the school grounds currently accomodates 41 boys, while the girls’ dormitory, which accommodates 40 girls, is on a nearby property and is supervised by an order of nuns.
Most
of the students’ parents are subsistence farmers from remote villages and it is
not easy for them to support their children’s education.
Without
the dormitories, these students would not be able to
attend school as their villages are many hours travel away on mountainous
roads.
Some of the girls at the dormitory and Sister Olga Oliveira, SPC, who is in charge of the girls’ dormitory in Railaco.
The Jesuit-run Secondary School, NOSSEF,
provides schooling for 380 students from Year 10 to Year 12. Over the last few
years the school has remarkably achieved a 100% pass rate in the National exams
for Year 12 with many students going on to tertiary study.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, this year NOSSEF divided its students into two groups, where Group A studies at home for a week and Group B attends classes at school for a week. When a wave of COVID cases emerged in April, the school was closed temporarily, however, it is now open with all staff and students required to wear a mask, sanitise regularly and maintain a safe distance.
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[quotes] “I would like to thank the donors for their generosity in supporting us in Railaco. We will do our best to be good students and we ask for your prayers so that we may have a brighter future to serve this country and the church." [/quotes]
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[quotes_author color="#000"] Antegracia [/quotes_author]
As Jesuit Mission
celebrates its 70th anniversary, long time supporter Joy Anderson reflects on
her life-changing trips visiting the Jesuits in Hazaribag, India in the 1970s.
When Joy Anderson booked a trip to India in 1972, she couldn’t
have anticipated the mind-enlarging experiences that lay in wait, and the
lifelong impact the journey would have on herself and her young family.
“We went to [the travel agent] and he said, 'Why do you want to go to India? Nobody goes to India’,” she recalls almost five decades later.
“I said, ‘Well, we're going’.”
And so Joy set off with her late husband, Peter – a St Ignatius’ College Riverview old boy and then-president of the Old Ignatian’s Union – for what would be the first of many visits to the subcontinent. The seed for that initial journey had been sown by the Australian Jesuit community with whom the couple were friendly; the Australian Province had established Hazaribag mission to provide education and healthcare to rural and indigenous communities in Jharkhand Province in 1951 - 70 years ago this year.
Returning
missionaries had “painted the most wonderful word pictures” when describing to
Joy and Peter the place, its people and the important work being undertaken there.
One such project supported by the Jesuits was the series of eye clinics (or eye camps) run by the Hazaribag Lions Club; Peter, a highly respected Sydney ophthalmologist, had precisely the skills doctors in Hazaribag were so desperately lacking. But when the couple received a telegram from the Hazaribag Province asking them to visit, he was less easily convinced than Joy of the wisdom of such an incursion.
“Peter said, ‘I cannot go into another country and say, ‘Here, I'm going to work. You just don't do that. You've got to be invited’.”
But he was swayed by the wise and prophetic words of Fr Phil Crotty SJ (1932-2021), one of the earliest Australian missionaries to Hazaribag, who was on a visit back home.
“We were down in the Jesuit Mission office [in Sydney] and Peter was unsure about going to such a foreign country. Phil looked at him and said, ‘You know, Peter, you will get much more out of it than you think. And you'd be giving more.”
Thus
encouraged, the couple set off for a country which – true to Fr Phil’s astute
counsel – would reciprocate their benevolence more than they could possibly
have imagined.
“There were all these Indian doctors, of all faiths and backgrounds, who were working together voluntarily. So, you know, suddenly your eyes were opened,” she says. “Peter participated in quite a few of the eye camps and he said, ‘Oh, you feel you're a real doctor, doing this kind of work’.”
On
subsequent visits, Peter took along with him donor eyes, preserved in dry ice, on
which local doctors could practice and perfect the relatively new,
sight-restoring technique of corneal grafting. Joy, meanwhile, immersed herself
in the community, learning about life – and death – from an entirely foreign
perspective. She relates with sagacity the story of the wife of a deputy
headmaster who had fallen ill and died, and whose body had to be preserved in
preparation for burial.
“They called Peter and he was trying to do mouth-to-mouth on her, [but] she died. We had to go and get ice from everywhere [to preserve the body]. They were saying, ‘We're so sorry you are seeing this’. I said, ‘This is part of life. This is an experience.’ I thought… it was just what they live with all the time. Oh, I can't describe what it was like, it just enriched our lives so much.”
The visits also gave Peter insight into the immense impact
Australian benefactors could exert on less advantaged, far-distant communities.
This experience informed his role as president of the Indian Bazaar Committee,
a position he held for 25 years after his appointment shortly after returning
from that first visit to India. Under his guidance, the committee was
responsible for running Jesuit Mission’s annual Indian Bazaar at Riverview, one
of the largest fundraising events for the Hazaribag mission.
“We saw different things on different visits, so you saw where the money was going,” says Joy. “That made Peter realise and appreciate the [Australian] people more, what they were doing. They are the salt of the earth, the people that work for the mission, they really are.”
And the wisdom acquired on those visits infiltrated Joy’s
life in other, more subtle ways.
“On my first trip, I thought, ‘When I come back through Singapore I'm going to get a long rope of pearls, that’s where I'll get it’. When I got to Singapore that was the last thing in the world I needed. Everything goes into place.”
Apart
from one of their sons, none of the couple’s seven children have visited India;
but while growing up they all absorbed the stories their parents brought back
with them, Joy says.
Those expansive, edifying experiences might not have happened if not for the sage advice of the late Fr Phil Crotty SJ (1932-2021) almost 50 years ago, and Joy’s own determination – despite the travel agent’s demurral – to set out for that foreign land. When Peter died six years ago, aged 88, memories of the couple’s travels in Hazaribag came rushing forth.
“They're lovely memories, they're very enriching memories, it made a tremendous difference to our lives,” says Joy, who turned 89 this year.
“And that's why we asked Fr Phil to do Peter's [funeral] mass: because he was the one that really talked Peter into going.”
Jesuit Mission invites you to attend an online
Prayer Vigil for Myanmar and India on Wednesday 2 June at 6:00pm AEST.
Leading the Vigil is Fr Tony Moreno SJ, President of Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP), Fr Quyen Vu SJ, Australian Provincial, Fr Santosh Minj SJ, Provincial of Hazaribag Jesuits, Fr Stany D’Souza SJ, President of Jesuit Conference of South Asia (JCSA), Fr Jun Viray SJ, Provincial of the Philippines, and Sch. P.V. Joseph Buan Sing SJ, a Burmese Jesuit Scholastic based in Rome, Sr Britto, Holy Cross Sister (India), Anna O’Halloran, Chair, Jesuit Mission Maytime Fair Committee, Gillian Donoghue, Development Officer of Myanmar Jesuit Mission and Niang Mun Ciin (Mun Pi), who works with Myanmar Jesuit Mission.
The 30 minute Vigil is an opportunity for the global
Jesuit community and beyond to join together in solidarity and support our
sisters and brothers in crisis overseas.
In
Myanmar the violent military coup has thrown the country into immense political
unrest, resulting in the deaths of over 700 peaceful protestors since February.
Efforts to control
the spread of the virus have crumbled, with many hospitals shut down or taken
over by the military.
In India the second wave of the pandemic is catastrophic. Critical oxygen shortages and over 24 million COVID infections sadly means that there is little hope for vulnerable communities. In our Australian-founded mission in Hazaribag, four Hazaribag Jesuits have died and more than 15 Hazaribag Jesuits have been hospitalised with COVID. However, the number of deaths and those hospitalised is changing daily.
[quotes]“As we continue providing emergency relief and support to those in Myanmar and India, it is ultimately through the power of united prayer that we can all stand together and work towards restoring lasting peace and the gift of healing." [/quotes]
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[quotes_author color="#000"] Helen Forde, CEO of Jesuit Mission [/quotes_author]
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Register Now
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Jesuit Mission hosted an online Prayer Vigil for Myanmar and India on Wednesday 2 June.
Thousands of people from around the globe gathered together virtually in prayer for our brothers and sisters.
Leading the Vigil was Fr Tony Moreno SJ, President of Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP), Fr Quyen Vu SJ, Australian Provincial, Fr Santosh Minj SJ, Provincial of Hazaribag Jesuits, Fr Stany D’Souza SJ, President of Jesuit Conference of South Asia (JCSA), Fr Jun Viray SJ, Provincial of the Philippines and Sch. P.V. Joseph Buan Sing SJ, a Burmese Jesuit Scholastic based in Rome, Anna O’Halloran, Chair, Jesuit Mission Maytime Fair Committee, Sr Britto, Holy Cross Sister (India), Gillian Donoghue, Development Officer of Myanmar Jesuit Mission, Niang Mun Ciin (Mun Pi), who works with Myanmar Jesuit Mission.
[sub_title color="#00b0b9"] Railaco, Timor-Leste Project Update at One Paddock Winery, 28 March 2021 [break height="10"][/sub_title]A splendid day was enjoyed at One Paddock Currency Creek Winery on Sunday 28 March by forty Pilgrims 100 members. We especially thank Rachel and Tim Henderson for so generously hosting this special event at One Paddock.[break height=10]
We were treated to three very informative presentations: [break height=10]Fr Peter Hosking SJ recounted certain events of his time in Timor-Leste during the Indonesian withdrawal. His personal account was very moving and we can only imagine how traumatic it was at the time. [break height=10]Helen Forde, CEO of Jesuit Mission, explained the stewardship of the $71,000 collectively contributed by all Pilgrims 100 members for the Railaco project in Timor-Leste. A document summarizing Helen’s presentation can be found here. [break height=10] Finally, we watched a video specially prepared for Pilgrims 100 members by the Jesuit video production unit in Timor-Leste about the Railaco project, sharing their hopes for 2021 and expressing gratitude for our support. The video can be viewed here.
‘The roar of a nation,’ hope stirs the next generation of Myanmar
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This is
one of the most challenging historical moments for our Jesuit partners and those
people they serve in Myanmar, after the military seized power over the democratically
elected government in a shocking coup on 1 February. More than 700
people have since been killed by security forces, the majority of
whom were peacefully protesting for a return to democracy and the release of
political leaders.
However, hope has been reignited in the next generation of students
from the Jesuit Mission supported Myanmar Leadership Institute (MLI), which
celebrated its second graduation ceremony on 19 March amidst the COVID-19
pandemic and the military coup.
Twenty-two students from the second
cohort received a diploma and certificate in Leadership Development in
collaboration with the Ateneo de Manila University and six students received
the professional certificate in Peace Leader Studies from Jesuit Worldwide
Learning.
[quotes]“Leadership is not about position, it is a way of life, understanding the value of human dignity. It is completely service oriented. I would like to thank the teachers of MLI for the knowledge you passed on to us and for helping us grow in every way possible." [/quotes]
[quotes_author color="#000"]Graduating MLI student [/quotes_author]
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Since its inception in 2018, MLI has been forming a generation of
leaders that prioritise social justice, to lead with competence and compassion.
Its courses range from a one-year Diploma in Leadership program to a ten-week
Certificate in Business Communication program.
Many of the students of MLI come from ethnic minority groups and
are now more determined than ever to overcome decades of conflict that has
stunted the educational, social and infrastructural development of the nation.
[quotes]“We now live amid the roar of a nation. Books will be written about this Burmese Spring Revolution…. But it is into such a world as ours at this turning point of Myanmar’s history, that great ideas come as gently as doves, the gentle stirring of life and hope. That is the reason for your study. That is the reason for studying leadership, for trying to understand its constituent elements: such as empathy, resilience, collaboration, trust, respect, courage, creativity, forethought and the techniques of planning, management and networking. Hope is rooted in the past, but believes in the future.” [/quotes]
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[quotes_author color="#000"] The Mission Superior [/quotes_author]
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During the graduation ceremony a moment of silent prayer was offered to honour those who have lost their lives since 1 February.
Please keep the people of Myanmar in your thoughts and prayers.
Praying in a foreign language: Fr Phil Crotty SJ (1932-2021)
It was the spirit of adventure that led the late Fr Phil Crotty SJ, previous Director of Jesuit Mission and Hazaribag missionary, to India in 1952 and the spirit of devotion that kept him there for 50 years.Written by Catherine Marshall.
Fr Phil Crotty SJ in Kurseong, India 1964
When Fr Phil Crotty SJ was a boy growing up in regional
Victoria, he couldn’t have known he’d spend his final years praying in a
foreign language. It was a lifetime of service, commitment and good old adventure
that had brought him to this point – and which had, in the end, carried him
full circle. Reflecting on 71 years as a Jesuit, the boy from Ararat, Victoria said
he’d joined the Society of Jesus in 1950, at the age of 18, on the assumption
he’d be sent off into the world just as soon as the Australian province had
found a suitable placement for him.
“At that stage they didn't have a mission, but the impression I was given was that ‘as soon they get a mission you can be sent on that, otherwise we'll send you to another province,” he recalled all those decades later.
"So I didn’t know when or where, but it turned out that in 1951 the Australian province was given a mission in India. And that was to become the Hazaribag Mission."
The enterprise – which ultimately became Hazaribag Province
– had arisen from a request by the Belgian Jesuits for assistance at their mission
at Ranchi, established in the late 19th century and so successful they
now required additional manpower to manage it. The Australian Province, which
was scouting around for its own mission, heeded the call, and the first six
Australian Jesuits arrived in India in 1951.
When the then-20-year-old Phil followed a year later in
December 1952, along with seven other Jesuits, he was embarking on a remarkable
journey, one that would deliver the adventure he craved and immerse him in what
he would later describe as an “extraordinary revolution”. Until then, the
furthest he’d ventured from his home state was Sydney.
I guess it was adventure in those days – not many people went overseas. It wasn’t long after the war, and Australia was pretty conservative about foreign travel and all that sort of thing."
“We went to, I think it was Myer’s, on Bourke Street in Melbourne, and were given six khaki shirts and six khaki pairs of pants. And that was about the sum total of preparation.”
With the benefit of a lifetime’s worth of retrospection, Fr
Phil later ruminated on the courage and commitment required of not only those
early Jesuit missionaries – most young scholastics in their twenties – but also
their families.
Fr Phil saying goodbye to his mother in 1952.
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“In those days we went for life. There was no coming back, you know,” he said.
"It was taken for granted that you didn't see family again, unless they came to India, which they did. But I was probably too young, too excited to really to grasp how painful it was for my mother. And in retrospect, I guess, painful for me. But that sort of feeling comes later, I think."
Decades later, Fr Phil was able to effortlessly conjure the overwhelming scene that met him when he stepped off the ship in Bombay on Christmas day, 1952.
"The crowds, the huge mass of people everywhere, which is, for me, still the most striking difference between India and Australia. Whenever I paid visits to Australia from India, it always seemed to be empty."
But even if disembodiment and homesickness had struck Phil upon
his arrival in India, there would have been little time to wallow in it. The newcomers
immersed themselves immediately in the region’s languages and cultures, familiarised
themselves with local communities – including tribal people dispossessed of
their land – and spent time discerning their own missioned theology. After a
few years of collaborative work at Ranchi, the Belgian Jesuits offered their
Australian counterparts the northern part of the mission, where they had been
least engaged. And so Hazaribag was born – and the Australians in India began
to forge their own enduring legacy.
“We had a year of Hindi, and then we were sent out to parishes that were out in the villages.”
“I was sent to a lovely place called Tongo where I spent six months practicing Hindi with the children in the school, teaching some classes and joining the boarders when they went fishing. That was a wonderful time.”
Meanwhile, the young Jesuit’s formation was progressing: he spent
time in Pune studying philosophy, taught in schools and at the university
college in Ranchi for several years, and completed his theology studies in Kurseong
near Darjeeling. He was due to fly from Kurseong to Calcutta in March 1964 to
meet his mother, who had travelled to India for his ordination; it would be
their first reunion since Fr Phil’s departure from Australia 12 years earlier. But
the plane never arrived.
“So to get to the ordination, which was to take place in Hazaribag, I climbed through the window of a train [he had bought a ticket, but it was customary for doors to be locked once the carriage was full] and travelled on the luggage rack all night. And then I got off at a place called Barauni, and travelled all day on a bus, and arrived [in Hazaribag] the evening before the ordination,” he recalled.
“I was covered in dirt from all the roads at this stage, so my plan was to sneak into the house, have a shower, and then go and meet my mother. The first person I met… as I went into the house was my mother, and the first words she said to me were, ‘Typical of you, you’re late!’"
Fr Phil remembered that reunion and the ordination that
followed as “wonderful”. But inter-religious tensions were brewing, and during his
mother’s visit Belgian Jesuit Herman Rasschaert was stoned to death in Ranchi
while trying to protect a group of Muslims from rioting Hindus.
“After my first mass I was actually in Ranchi with my mother, and the news came through that he'd been killed. Immediately there was a lockdown and curfew,” Fr Phil recalled.
“I had to get my mother back to Hazaribag in the middle of this thing. I can remember that was a very nervous journey. I had to get a taxi and the driver said, ‘I'll take you on condition that we stop nowhere’. She was very cool during the whole thing... but they were forced to cut short their stay in India. My two brothers who were also with her, they decided it would be safer to take her back [home] not long after that.”
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The danger of such interreligious mistrust was a familiar concern for the Jesuits. Though they’d been made to feel welcome upon their arrival in 1951, they understood such sentiment hinged on their willingness to develop a deep knowledge and respect for local customs and beliefs.
“If you're working with tribal people, you must understand their culture, their language, their recent history.”
“People nowadays are so relaxed about other religions, which is a huge change from what it was like when I became a Jesuit – [non-Christians] were people who had to be converted because their religion was wrong, you had to save them, save souls. It’s been an extraordinary revolution, really –it’s like being part of a revolution. It’s made [Jesuits] more human. It’s not me to you, it’s us. It’s not that I’m giving you something, but we’re sharing something together. [But] it takes a long time – you’ve got to learn the language, you’ve got to learn the culture, you’ve got to grow into something.”
With education the cornerstone of the Australian Jesuits’
mission in India – St Xavier’s Hazaribag had been established the year of their
arrival, in 1951 – the newly ordained Fr Phil spent time teaching before being
appointed a parish priest at Mahuadanr and later Kunda. He was happily fulfilling
his parish duties when, without warning and much to his astonishment, he was
elected Major Superior (now known as Provincial) of Hazaribag Province. Retelling
the story with bemusement decades later, Fr Phil said he’d been en route to Mahuadanr
to help elect the new Major Superior when his plans were scuppered.
“We stopped at a parish on the way, and then we moved on and stopped at another parish, and then Fr Bernie Donnelly, who was the superior at the time said, ‘Oh, I've left the file at the previous parish’. It was evening at this stage, and we had passed through the jungle, which is locked down at night, they put chains across the road to stop illegal hunting. He said, ‘Can you go back and get the files? So I borrowed a motorcycle from the parish and managed to manoeuvre my way past all the chain gates through the jungle, and arrived about eight or nine o'clock at night back at the previous parish.”
The parish had already dispatched the file with a courier who was now on his way to Daltonganj. Next morning Fr Phil drove to Daltonganj, but the courier had already boarded a bus for Mahuadanr.
“So I followed the bus and caught up with it halfway through the jungle, and stopped the bus, got the file and drove on to Mahuadanr myself with the file. And Bernie said to me when I got there, ‘Oh, it doesn't matter, we've already decided, we’re done’. A few weeks later, when the word came through that I was chosen for the job, I was actually having a sleep-in. Bernie came and he said, ‘Look, I've come from Ranchi with the message that you're the Superior’. I said, ‘I can't be, I was never asked’. He said, ‘We knew you'd say no!’”
Jesuits in Timor-Leste respond to Easter Sunday flood crisis
Evacuation centres provide food, clothes and shelter for those temporarily displaced.
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Jesuits in Timor-Leste have been responding to the widespread destruction of Tropical Cyclone Seroja, an Easter Sunday nightmare that brought flash flooding and left 42 people dead, including a Timorese teacher at the Jesuit Mission supported Loyola College.
With an estimated 14,000 people temporarily displaced, Jesuit Mission has sent funds to assist Jesuit Social Service, who supported communities in six informal evacuation centres in Hare and Dili, areas badly affected by the flood.
[quotes]“Evacuation centres include convents, parish halls a university and religious houses. Now that the rain has stopped, we can begin to clean up and plan long-term solutions for these families.” [/quotes]
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[quotes_author color="#000"]Júlio Sousa SJ, Director of Jesuit Social Service Timor-Leste[/quotes_author]
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With thanks to Jesuit Mission supporters, these long-term solutions include purchasing and providing mattresses, bed sheets, kitchen and cooking utensils for 100 households, approximately 1,000 people.
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People walking through flood waters.
[quotes]“If we have sufficient resources we will certainly extend our help to more households. At the moment we have distributed food items and clothes to over 500 people.” [/quotes]
[quotes_author color="#000"]Júlio [/quotes_author]
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The mass displacement and infrastructural damage
caused by flooding waters and landslides additionally poses the threat of
spreading COVID-19, with Dili municipality seeing a resurgence of new cases in
recent months.
Jesuit Mission stands in solidarity with the devastated
families in Timor-Leste and urges our supporters to keep them in your thoughts
and prayers.
The Funeral Mass was held on Tuesday 13 April at 10:00am, at St Mary's Church, Ridge Street in North Sydney. A wake followed at the Ron Dyer Centre, and burial will be at Macquarie Park (Cnr Delhi Rd & Plassey Rd, Macquarie Park).
If you would like to make a donation in Fr Phil's memory, to support marginalised people around the world click here
Message from Helen Forde, Jesuit Mission CEO
I am deeply saddened to let you know that we lost a truly great man on 7th April - Fr Phil Crotty SJ, former Jesuit Mission Director and Hazaribag missionary of more than 50 years, died peacefully in his sleep. Fr Phil was 89 years old.
For me personally, Fr Phil was my hero. When I started at Jesuit Mission five years ago, I knew I had big shoes to fill. I still remember meeting him for the first time and feeling nervous. But Fr Phil’s warm and gentle presence made me feel instantly comforted – a feeling which never left me.
I will forever cherish the times I spent with Fr Phil over the past few years. He was a wonderful companion who offered wise counsel and friendship. I will greatly miss our morning tea catch ups and lunches at the local café where he reminisced so beautifully about his time in Hazaribag. He touched so many lives there and here in Australia – his legacy will be ever-lasting.
Vale Fr Phil. May you rest in peace my friend.
Helen Forde, CEO of Jesuit Mission.
Fr Phil leaving for India in 1952.
Click here if you would like to leave a donation in Fr Phil's memory, to support marginalised people around the world.
