Pope Francis supports global education initiative for refugee children and youth

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Rome, 18 November 2015 – In a private audience with 15 refugees and friends and staff of Jesuit Refugee Service to commemorate the 35th anniversary of JRS on Saturday, 14 November, Pope Francis emphasised the importance of education for refugee children and youth as a means to build peace and foster the development of more resilient and cohesive societies.

The former Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Pedro Arrupe SJ, founded JRS in 1980 in response to the then-unprecedented humanitarian crisis of refugees fleeing Vietnam and Cambodia. Today the world is in the grip of another crisis, with more than 60 million people displaced from their homes.

Pope Francis has long urged Catholics to welcome refugees, saying the world is currently suffering from a “globalisation of indifference,” ignoring those who cry out for mercy. On Saturday, as a precursor to the Holy Year of Mercy to launch on 8 December, the Pope formally recognised and pledged support for the JRS Global Education Initiative, a drive to increase the number of people served by JRS’ educational programmes to 100,000 additional refugees by the year 2020.

“Your initiative of ‘Global Education’, with its motto ‘Mercy in Motion’, will help you reach many other students who urgently need an education which can keep them safe,” the Pope said. “To give a child a seat at school is the finest gift you can give. All [JRS’] programmes have this ultimate aim: to help refugees grow in self-confidence, to realise their highest inherent potential and be able to defend their rights as individuals and communities.”

Refugees face a variety of barriers trying to access education, from overcrowding in schools to xenophobia in host communities. Their fundamental right to education is often lost. Among refugee children globally, only 36 percent go to secondary school and less than one percent have the opportunity to pursue a higher education.

For 35 years, JRS has provided quality education as a tool for people to better fulfil their own potential and fully contribute to the growth, strength and stability of their communities. Schools allow those who have been forced to flee their homes to rebuild a shared space, a community, a sense of normality. Pope Francis has historically called the public to protect refugees and care for the most vulnerable. Access to education can keep children safe and protected from risks, including gender-based violence, recruitment into armed groups, child labour and early marriage.

The Jesuit Refugee Service is not ‘celebrating’ 35 years of service, as the global plight of refugees is not a joyous occasion. Rather, after 35 years, we are reaffirming our commitment to our mission and the vision of Fr Arrupe to accompany, serve and advocate for refugees worldwide.

JRS works in 45 countries, across all faiths and nationalities, to serve the most vulnerable in difficult-to-reach areas. Pope Francis commended the diversity with JRS saying, “the decision to be present in areas of greatest need, in conflict and post-conflict zones, has brought you international recognition for your closeness to people and your ability to learn from this how better to serve… you accept men and women of different religious beliefs who share your mission.”

“[Schools] are places of sharing together with children of other cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds… places in which children can once more feel ‘normal’ and where parents can be happy to send them.”

Fr Thomas Smolich SJ, JRS International Director reiterated, “more and more in whatever we do, we see ourselves helping people live as children of God, respecting the many religious traditions of the refugees we serve.”

At the audience, Pope Francis was presented with a photobook showing with drawings by Syrian children from diverse backgrounds in Lebanon, showing their lives before and after entering into educational programmes in JRS centres. He was also given an exercise book with the drawings featured the cover, the first in a line of exercise books which will be sold across northern Europe to help support refugee education for children and youth.

Fr Kenneth Gavin SJ, JRS Assistant International Director, delivered to the Pope a decorative bottle filled with drawings and messages calling for peace in South Sudan. The gift is part of the “Message in a Bottle” project organized by 14 boys in the JRS Amani protection centre, which provides a safe haven for unaccompanied boys, in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya.

Finally, Fr Endashaw Debrework SJ, Regional Director of JRS Eastern Africa, gave the booklet of testimonies from 11 refugees served by JRS across Eastern Africa. The booklet is part of a campaign launched by JRS Eastern Africa called Pontifex, Hear Us, in which refugees call on the Pope to show mercy and hear them, as he prepares his journey to the region on 25 November.

Four days later, in his public audience on 18 November from St Peter’s square, the Pope endorsed an attitude of welcome those who are vulnerable, saying “The House of God is a refuge. It is not a prison. The Church is the doorman of the Lord’s house, not the master. Be welcoming. So many people have lost the courage to come and knock.”

(Photo Caption: Pope Francis supports global education initiative for refugee children and youth A refugee from Iran meets Pope Francis at the audience with JRS on 14 November. He came as a part of the group of refugees and staff representing Centro Astalli/JRS Italy. © L’Osservatore Vaticano)

Jacquelyn Pavilon, JRS Acting International Communications Coordinator

 

Address of His Holiness Pope Francis

Meeting with the Jesuit Refugee Service

 

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am happy to receive you on this, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Jesuit Refugee Service envisaged by Father Pedro Arrupe, then the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. The profound impact made on him by the plight of the South-Vietnamese boat people, exposed to pirate attacks and storms in the South China Sea, was what led him to undertake this initiative.

Father Arrupe, who had lived through the atomic bomb explosion at Hiroshima, realized the scope of that tragic exodus of refugees. He saw it as a challenge which the Jesuits could not ignore if they were to remain faithful to their vocation. He wanted the Jesuit Refugee Service to meet both the human and the spiritual needs of refugees, not only their immediate need of food and shelter, but also their need to see their human dignity respected, to be listened to and comforted.

The phenomenon of forced migration has dramatically increased in the meantime. Crowds of refugees are leaving different countries of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, to seek refuge in Europe. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that there are, worldwide, almost sixty million refugees, the highest number since the Second World War. Behind these statistics are people, each of them with a name, a face, a story, an inalienable dignity which is theirs as a child of God.

At present, you are active in ten different regions, with projects in forty-five countries, through which you provide services to refugees and peoples in internal migrations. A group of Jesuits and women religious work alongside many lay associates and a great number of refugees. In all this time, you have remained faithful to the ideal of Father Arrupe and to the three basic goals of your mission: to accompany, to serve and to defend the rights of refugees.

The decision to be present in areas of greatest need, in conflict and post-conflict zones, has brought you international recognition for your closeness to people and your ability to learn from this how better to serve. I think especially of your groups in Syria, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where you accept men and women of different religious beliefs who share your mission.

The Jesuit Refugee Service works to offer hope and prospects to refugees, mainly through the educational services you provide, which reach large numbers of people and is of particular importance. Offering an education is about much more than dispensing concepts. It is something which provides refugees with the wherewithal to progress beyond survival, to keep alive the flame of hope, to believe in the future and to make plans. To give a child a seat at school is the finest gift you can give. All your projects have this ultimate aim: to help refugees to grow in self-confidence, to realize their highest inherent potential and to be able to defend their rights as individuals and communities.

For children forced to emigrate, schools are places of freedom. In the classroom, they are cared for and protected by their teachers. Sadly, we know that even schools are not spared from attacks instigated by those who sow violence. Yet they are places of sharing, together with children of other cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds; places which follow a set pace and a reassuring discipline, places in which children can once more feel “normal” and where parents can be happy to send them.

Education affords young refugees a way to discover their true calling and to develop their potential. Yet all too many refugee children and young people do not receive a quality education. Access to education is limited, especially for girls and in the case of secondary schools. For this reason, during the approaching Jubilee Year of Mercy, you have set the goal of helping another hundred thousand young refugees to receive schooling. Your initiative of “Global Education”, with its motto “Mercy in Motion”, will help you reach many other students who urgently need an education which can help keep them safe. I am grateful to the group of supporters and benefactors and the international development group of the Jesuit Refugee Service who are with us today. Thanks to their energy and support, the Lord’s mercy will reach any number of children and their families in the future.

As you persevere in this work of providing education for refugees, think of the Holy Family, Our Lady, Saint Joseph, and the Child Jesus, who fled to Egypt to escape violence and to find refuge among strangers. Remember too the words of Jesus: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7). Take these words with you always, so that they can bring you encouragement and consolation. As for me, I assure you of my prayers. I ask you also, please, do not forget to pray for me.

 

Press Contact Information

Jacquelyn Pavilon

jacquelyn.pavilon@jrs.net

+39 06 69 868 609

 

Article republished with the permission of JRS International.