Collaboration

Jesuit priest Ferdinand Muhigirwa from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), engaged in the social sector, was the director of the Centre of Studies for Social Action (CEPAS) from 2005 until 2012. Although his country is bursting with natural resources, their exploitation does not benefit most of the population.

People living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are often targets of prejudice. Their HIV +ve status shifts their positioning within the community from the middle to the peripheries, with dire consequences for their overall welfare.

I am Fr. Mauki, a Tanzanian Jesuit from the Eastern Africa Province of the Society of Jesus. I joined the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) team in Malta to consolidate the pastoral accompaniment of JRS for African asylum seekers amid migrants present in Malta.

“Will anyone volunteer to go to Bombay to help in an action research study on the eviction of pavement and slum dwellers conducted by a Social Work College?” asked my Rector while I was doing my first year of philosophy in Pune in 1985.

In the southern part of Colombian state of Nariño, we have started down the path towards local and regional sustainability, understood as a life choice in harmony with the surrounding environment.

This is the story of the village of ‘Agnipuri’ (A village of Fire). When I was appointed parish priest in Darsi, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, I soon heard of a neighbouring village called Erraobanapalli, which is more than 100 years old.

I am a journalist by profession, but instead of spending my time writing and editing for a newspaper or a television channel, my days are spent preparing packets of fruit and vegetables, delivering medicines, and helping children do their homework. In other words,

On 29th March 2008 we had harmonised elections in the country, which were reasonably peaceful. The opposition party won the majority but the electoral commission declared that the opposition leader had failed to garner the stipulated majority of “50% plus 1 vote”.

“With my daughter getting older and my brother’s recent death, my family needs me more than ever…I don’t know what to tell my daughter when she asks me if I will be with her? I wish I could tell her not to worry… that I’ll take care of her and that everything will be alright.

I sensed their pain and aspirations in our sharing stories about growing up in our respective ethnic communities. We were at the Jesuit Companions in Indigenous Ministry (JCIM) gathering in September at the Seven Fountains Jesuit Retreat house in Chiangmai, Thailand,