Partners of Jesuit Missions were invited onto global Catholic station Radio Maria England to talk about their vital work in some of the world’s most challenging places.
As part of their visit to the UK earlier this year, representatives from four projects spoke with Helena Judd about their involvement with Jesuit Missions and how this impacts the communities where they are based.
Fr Roy Sebastian, of Lok Manch, spoke about his organisation’s human rights work in India, Caroline Sanga, from Jesuits East Africa, focused on agricultural programmes in South Sudan, the Centre Arrupe’s Patricia Tahirindray covered the impact of climate change in Madagascar, and Fr Paul Martin outlined the role of Indigenous language initiatives in Guyana.
They all touched on the difficult circumstances facing those living in their countries, such as limited access to education and the effect of extreme weather patterns, and how the work of local, Jesuit-led programmes looks to address these.
But they also spoke of the resilience shown by these communities and provided messages of hope: from the schoolchildren taking classes in their native tongue in rural Guyana and the young people of Madagascar lobbying their government on climate issues, to the poor in India securing regular, vital food rations and the female farmers of South Sudan now growing crops all year round.
And they paid tribute to Jesuit Missions’ supporters, who, they said, enable them to carry on fighting for a better, more equal society for all.
