We hope
you enjoyed our first webinar! It was great to see so many of our friends
join us.
Fr Jinhyuk Park SJ from Xavier Jesuit School Cambodia shared with us what he saw and experienced while visiting these vulnerable families.
Once
again, we'd like to thank you for your ongoing support for Jesuit Mission.
Because of your generosity, many students such as Mardi and Chanra are able to
continue their studies, even in these difficult times.
Delivering emergency relief during Timorese lockdown
A Jesuit-run relief program has been crucial in helping vulnerable Timorese communities survive the pandemic.
[break height="10"]
[break height="10"]
An emergency relief program run by the Jesuits in Timor-Leste is offering critical assistance to vulnerable communities during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown. The program identified 480 families in dire need in the regions of Ulmera, Railaco and Dili following lockdown measures. The restrictions were immediately preceded by floods in which several people were killed, homes and crops destroyed, and drinking water contaminated.
“They still don’t have their houses fixed, [and it’s been hardest for] the farmers and those who earn their living by selling their products every day in the market,” says Fr Albino Ribeiro Gonçalves SJ, Regional Treasurer of the Society of Jesus in Timor.
While the country has managed to contain the spread of COVID-19 – only 24 cases have been recorded so far, with no deaths and no new cases since late April – the economic effects have been crippling. Already suffering the effects of entrenched poverty, many Timorese have lost their jobs and are going hungry. The relief project, supported by you and friends of Jesuit Mission, and delivered through Jesuit Social Services (JSS) in Timor-Leste, is mitigating some of these consequences by delivering food supplies and protective equipment such as soap to families most in need. The program has been critical in helping them survive the pandemic.
“I am a handicapped person and during this emergency situation I just have to survive with cassava and with whatever my neighbours in my community give me,” said Martinho Soares as he waited to collect his emergency supplies.
“What I am receiving today is too heavy for me to carry, but my neighbour will help me carry them to my house. Thank you very much and God bless those who are very kind to give me these food items.”
Woodworker Eduardo Pereira Tavares said the lockdown had prevented him from selling his goods to make money to support his family, while widow Marta de Araujo no Madalena dos Santos and her four grandchildren have been surviving until now on cassava and corn.
The program has prioritised single mothers, people with disabilities and the elderly from Ulmera and Railaco - where we support the established health and educational projects – and Dili, where many migrant labourers have now lost their jobs.
“We are grateful for the support from Jesuit Mission Australia because we can only do little things [ourselves],” says Fr Albino. “I think this is only the way that we can extend a hand so that they can survive during this difficult situation.”
The second emergency response will take place in the coming weeks to support additional 600 families.
Staff and students from St Ignatius’ College Riverview have walked in solidarity with Cambodians and Timorese affected by COVID-19
[break height="10"]
[break height="10"]
It’s a long walk from Sydney to Cambodia – more than 7,000 kilometres. But students at St Ignatius’ College Riverview laced up their boots and set off on this epic journey – or a simulation of it, at least – to raise over $10,000 for thousands of Cambodians living in the Battambang area whose livelihoods have been impacted by COVID-19.
"It was a great way to fundraise for the people of Cambodia who were massively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Darcy Henry, one of the many Riverview students who took part in the event.
The College staff members, meanwhile, undertook their own solidarity "journey", covering the 3,840km that separates Sydney and Timor-Leste - where the pandemic is also wreaking havoc on people's lives - raising almost $20,000 along the way. The funds will be disbursed respectively through our partners, the Karuna Battambang Organisation (KBO) COVID-19 Relief Fund in Cambodia and the Jesuits' lockdown relief program in Timor-Leste.
COVID-19 has decimated the economies in both countries, with job losses already measuring in the hundreds of thousands. In Cambodia, the life-giving tourism industry is in ruins, garment workers have been impacted by the cancellation of contracts by Western clothing manufacturers, and construction workers have been laid off. With no government social welfare system to depend on, those now unemployed have nowhere to turn; many have returned to their rural villages.
The KBO COVID-19 Relief Fund was set up by the Jesuits in Cambodia to support those most severely affected by the pandemic – mainly the youth and young adults. The fund will provide recipients with small business loans or employment aimed at improving irrigation systems in several villages throughout Battambang.
In Timor-Leste, the Jesuits, with your support, are providing emergency supplies such as rice, cooking oil, and noodles to 480 households in vulnerable communities which would otherwise face starvation. They are also hoping to supply these households with protective equipment such as soap as a way to mitigate the virus.
“I’m deeply grateful to the St Ignatius’ College Riverview community for walking in solidarity with our vulnerable brothers and sisters. With such help, our partners on the ground are able to respond swiftly and effectively to the new challenges arising every day,” said Helen Forde, CEO of Jesuit Mission.
The Riverview students will continue this journey until the last week in September.
In the hope of bringing you some joy, we’d like to share some good news stories! Thanks to your generous support, we’ve been able to reach out to those people who have been most vulnerable and affected by COVID-19 in countries like India, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and Cambodia.
Our Jesuit partners in Timor-Leste have been visiting the most severely affected areas in the country to distribute emergency food and essential supplies to the vulnerable families. These families were so relieved to receive rice to feed their hungry children and grandchildren. They wish to thank all our supporters who made this emergency relief possible. Here are some messages of their gratitude.
"As a widow with two children and four grandchildren I am grateful for the generosity of the donor that has given us rice, oil and noodles. My grandchildren can eat rice now for a change instead of cassava and corn all the time. We really need these [supplies] for the month especially during this emergency situation".
"I'm a handicapped person and during this emergency situation I have to survive with just cassava and with whatever my neighbours in my community give me. What I'm receiving today is too heavy for me to carry but neighbour will help me carry them to my house. Thank you very much and God bless those who are very kind to give me these food items".
"I am still strong to do woodcrafting, but during this state of emergency, we cannot sell our goods to make money to buy food for our family. We have to survive with whatever we have. So, I just want to thank the donor that knows our condition especially during this Coronavirus situation".
And, here are some more photos from the
emergency relief distribution.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Jesuit Mission – it’s thanks to you that our partners like the Jesuit Social Service in Timor-Leste can work to ease the suffering of our vulnerable brothers and sisters during this pandemic.
For many of our vulnerable brothers and sisters overseas, it's hard to find hope for the near future. Our program partners in countries such as India and Myanmar are bracing for the worst in the next few months, as the impact of COVID-19 infiltrates wider and deeper into their communities.
Here’s an excerpt from an email that Fr Mark Raper SJ, an Australian Jesuit who is the Superior of the Myanmar Jesuit Mission, sent to us recently –
“Dear Friends - COVID-19 and its aftermath will be with us for a long time.
How should Myanmar Jesuit Mission respond as this ongoing pandemic burrows deeper into Myanmar society? For many vulnerable communities in Myanmar, the hunger emergency is, and will be, a greater challenge than the health emergency. Of course our help is a drop in the ocean of need, but the crisis is also revealing considerable generosity and compassion among Myanmar people.
So by joining with local partners, we reach many hundreds of households with practical assistance in their time of need”.
We
are constantly inspired by our Jesuit partners’ unwavering efforts in reaching
out to communities at risk, despite the challenges they face. And we are
incredibly grateful for the kind support of people like you, for making their
work possible.
Today,
we’d like to share with you recent photos of the Myanmar Jesuits supporting people
living in the country’s poorest slums, and distributing essential goods to
those most affected.
If you have already donated to our Emergency Action Fund appeal, thank you so much. If you haven’t yet had a chance, you can donate to our Emergency Action Fund here.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Jesuit Mission – it’s thanks to you that our partners like Myanmar Jesuit Mission can work to ease the suffering of our vulnerable brothers and sisters during this pandemic.
Refugees in Malawi finding hope through resilience!
As refugees are among the most vulnerable people, we wholeheartedly support programs that enable them to regain identity, independence and other basic rights.
We want to update you on one such program – the Digital Inclusion program in Malawi. It aims to teach digital skills to refugees to enhance their opportunities to find work in digital platforms.
Australian Jesuit, Fr David Holdcroft SJ, the Professional and Post-Secondary Education Specialist at Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) International is one of the founders of this program. He is thrilled that the first cohort of students are now all working and competing with the best in the world. He adds “they are no longer refugees when they are doing that!”
In this three-minute video, you can hear more about the resilience of the refugees and the success of this program.
[break height="20"]
If you’d like to know more about refugee programs we support, please click here.
In most parts of Australia, students resumed their studies at school. Whilst we need to cautiously keep an eye on the effect of this, we are grateful that we can gradually resume our day-to-day life.
However, for many of the vulnerable communities we support, sadly, it’s a different story. Fr Quyen Vu SJ, an Australian Jesuit who is the Director of Xavier Jesuit School in Cambodia, said that after 10 weeks of lockdown, the impact has been devastating on students and their families. With the school forced to be closed until November due to Government restrictions, Fr Quyen is concerned for the students’ wellbeing and worries some students may drop out of school in order to earn money for the family.
Fr Quyen and his team are determined to continue providing whatever support they can to students, during the school closure period. In this 3-minute video, Fr Quyen tells us of the visits he recently made to students’ families, and how grateful he is to be able to help those families by sharing what he can.
[break height="20"]
If you would like to support our Jesuit partners, such as Fr Quyen, in their efforts to ease the suffering of our vulnerable brothers and sisters from this pandemic, please donate to our Emergency Action Fund here.
Watch a 3-minute video on the COVID-19 crisis in India and how the Jesuits are helping poverty-stricken communities, featuring Fr Bob Slattery SJ and Fr Francis Marian SJ.
[break height="20"]
[break height="20"]
Fr Bob Slattery SJ, one of the Australian Jesuits missioned to India in the 1950s and today is still accompanying marginalised people there, says he has seen nothing quite as devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At the time of the famine in 1966, it was very bad. But it was nothing like this. We’ve never seen this, and we hope never to see it again.”
– Fr Bob Slattery SJ
In India, an estimated 10 million so-called daily wage labourers – migrant workers who earn just enough each day to feed themselves – have been left with nothing to eat and no easy way home.
This crippling poverty and lack of resources has amplified the catastrophe and galvanised the Jesuits in Hazaribag to draw on their deep well of experience working with disadvantaged communities. They are identifying the poor, educating them about social distancing and providing them with dry rations and sanitation items.
Fr Francis Marian SJ, coordinating distribution of food and supplies, is working round the clock to ensure “no-one goes to sleep with teary eyes and hungry stomach.”
If you haven’t yet had a chance to donate, please consider supporting our Emergency Action Fund, so that we can continue to support partners such as Fr Bob and Fr Francis in their efforts.
We wanted to bring you a few heart-warming photos of our program partners who are working tirelessly to help the vulnerable communities that are most affected by the COVID-19.
We hope these photos bring you joy and peace.
Jesuit Communities in Hazaribag and Mahuadanr in India, in association with local NGOs have distributed over 1,000 masks and fed over 3,500 people with food packages.
[break height="20"]
Xavier Jesuit School in Cambodia have been making home visits to their scholarship students to distribute emergency food packages to the most vulnerable families.
[break height="20"]
[break height="20"]
Handwashing station set up at one of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) refugee camps in Myanmar.
[break height="20"]
Jesuit Mission Myanmar offering food packages and messages of love to those living in the slums.
[break height="20"]
The Jesuits in Vietnam in collaboration with other missionaries and volunteers have provided 40 tons of rice and food supplies to over 2,000 families.
[break height="20"]
JRS Angola team are providing health checks and distributing food packages to the refugees.
And lastly, here’s an interview with Fr Michael Kelly SJ, an Australian Jesuit who has been working with the refugees in Thailand for the last ten years. He talks to us about his work as well as the impact of coronavirus on the refugees
[break height="30"]
If you’d like to support our program partners’ endeavours in helping the most marginalised in this crisis, please donate to our Emergency Action Fund here.
