EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

ambiguity in collaborating with UN organisations. The missionaries
came to Africa alongside the colonial powers of that time. Their
security depended on those colonial powers. The JRS is, in a similar
way, moving under the umbrella of UN organisations who could be
compared to the former powers. The UN represents very much the
political will of powers who are also the greatest arms exporters.
Those very same countries also contribute humanitarian aid. The
ambiguity of this collaboration with the powerful institutions of our
times also existed in the early days of the Society of Jesus.
Encouraging diversity
The founding members who gathered around Ignatius were not
just from several different nations but were very different in their
personal characters. From its very beginning the Society of Jesus
has been a multi racial and culturally diverse body. The works and
tasks they took on were also very different. There was and is no apostolic
specialisation. The first Jesuits were present in every continent.
This diversity is reflected in JRS too; the teams are multi racial,
from different continents and cultures. The JRS even goes beyond
the limit of the Society of Jesus – a male order – by putting females
and males together in teams. The same applies to the mixture of laity
and religious.
There is no specific area of work in which JRS specialises. In this
it differs from other NGOs, e.g. MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières). Projects
carried out by JRS teams in different countries and refugee situations
are very diverse. The specific needs of refugee people combined
with the gifts of JRS personnel very much define the nature of
the work.
An emphasis on education
In the great diversity of its activities, education deserves to be
emphasised as a growing component of JRS work. Most NGOs deal
with more basic matters of refugee life like food, shelter, water, clothes,
medical help; education is not included in the UNHCR list of priorities.
Nonetheless it is very important for camp life itself and for the
future of refugee children. The JRS has taken on a number of, at times
big, educational programs in primary, secondary and, to a lesser
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