EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

chapter four
Ways of working
“We try to create a climate of friendship in the
camp,” said Fr Pierre Ceyrac, a French Jesuit who
lived with Khmer refugees in Thailand. Fr John
Bingham, an American Jesuit who was Fr Ceyrac’s
companion, explains: “It looks like the refugees are
really sharp in finding out who cares about them
and who doesn’t. One of our daily jobs is the ‘walking
ministry’. We walk around the camp area and
are continually approached by the refugees who
want us to listen to their problems, need help in
filling up forms, confide their secrets.” Pierre said
he spent two to three hours daily just walking and
meeting people, and thus came to know many refugees
in the camp. John and Pierre were involved
mainly in teaching English and French respectively.
For the two Jesuits, it was not merely teaching a
language, but ‘creating an atmosphere conducive
to human dignity’. “They are broken, humiliated,
crushed and pushed about... Our great effort is that
we try to rebuild in them an image of human dignity
and new hope... new joy... and human growth.”
M. Anthony Amalanathan SJ, A Jesuit Kampuchean camp
experience
67