Venezuela-Colombia – Youth Volunteering and Migration
Since April 1, a group of young people who are part of volunteer initiatives within the Javier Project in Venezuela, began a 17-day mission that led them to connect their vocation with the accompaniment that the Jesuit Refugee Service carries out in the border region between Venezuela and Colombia.
The initiative of this group of young professionals, born from a sincere commitment to service through volunteering and Ignatian spirituality, encouraged different people and works of the Society of Jesus to collaborate as a network in the realization of a meeting and mission carried out in the city of San Juan de Colón in Venezuela and in the city of Cúcuta in Colombia, territories that are part of one of the liveliest border regions of the American continent.
GOA is the name given to this experience by the Xavier Project, recalling the missionary work of St. Francis Xavier in Asia. This version of GOA around migration, has been the opportunity for the realization of a pilot of what can be an experience of Latin American Volunteering with an Ignatian look and an intercultural approach. This is another step towards the process of volunteering that we believe is relevant and necessary for the region, where the path of hope of young people and the call of people discarded from the world and forced to migrate are connected.
The experience: action and communication
"A humble and helpful love that does not spare its own dignity, but knows how to place itself at the feet of the other to relieve his tiredness, clean his dirt and welcome him at his own table". This phrase of J.A. Pagola, shared by Solmary, one of the participants of this experience as a greeting for Easter, describes perfectly the meaning of these days of encounter, mission, formation, reflection and action. Holy Week has been the ideal framework for this experience of service and pilgrimage, of contemplation in action, of encounter with life starting from the tragedy and pain of humanity: a true experience of "washing our feet".
This humble love, expressed in simplicity as the only real way to take care of the Common Home, is also a current testimony of the invitation of Fr. Pedro Arrupe S.J. to live a "revolution of love" which, from his view of the world and inspiration of JRS, involves welcoming and caring for people who are forced to leave everything to seek refuge. Accompanying the journey of migrants, refugees and displaced persons is the central element of this volunteer experience; this is why it has been so significant to go out and walk the migration route to see, feel and accompany the steps of millions of people in the world who are forced to flee to start anew.
The reality of migrants, their stories and their heroism have given meaning to the encounter. The mission and the close commitment of JRS professionals in Táchira and Norte de Santander are the inspiration for action. The peace incarnated in human beings, nature and processes in the Casa de Espiritualidad el Alfarero, is the evidence of the power of the transforming presence of the Gospel in Latin American and Caribbean communities. The love of the volunteers, which is more in deeds than in words, is the hope that utopia is worth pursuing every day of our lives. The collaboration between networks, countries, works and people, as a testimony of the value of dialogue, trust, participation and the detachment of power for service within a greater mission.
In the face of the throwaway culture, fraternity and social friendship are the ways to build a better world, Pope Francis tells us in Fratelli Tutti, and reminds us how "a stranger on the road" can be the key to learning to be more and better humanity.
This year the Pope invites us to live the World Day of Migrants and Refugees as a possibility to "build the future" with them. This time of mission and encounter from the culture of hospitality, peace and reconciliation, have given us more and better ideas to build and communicate that shared future, to "migrate towards the extraordinary".
Human beings are in a permanent search for meaning, that is the path of spirituality. 500 years ago, a man who thought he had everything solved from power and individuality, from a wound that touched his deepest fibers and through the discovery of his connection with God, chose a path of loving service to the divinity present in all things and all people. In communion with the spirituality of Ignatius, we continue to be companions of those who suffer unjustly from the various forms of violence here and now.
They have been days to connect with the decision to live to serve, to serve from the encounter and mutual care ("which is also civil and political" LS 231), promoting a greater culture of hospitality with the horizon of reconciliation and justice in our societies.
It has been 17 days to take Another Step Further: some fruits of this experience began to be used in the local communities where the young volunteers shared their life in mission; other fruits we will be able to share in the coming weeks through audiovisual pieces with testimonies and proposals for action; most of the fruits of this meeting will be harvested in the future service of these men and women who have chosen to be for others and with others.
Source: CPAL
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