Winter Warmth for both Body and Heart
This is what the team at the Rerum Novarum social center in Taipei offers to foreign fishermen who come to work on Taiwanese fishing boats. These men are poor. In their countries of origin, for example Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, they did not earn enough to support their families. They have come to work in Taiwan, so that they can send to their families, every month, some money to pay for basic needs. Their working conditions are very harsh and the small sums they keep from their pay for themselves does not allow them to buy the clothes they need to face the cold season.
The social services of the Society of Jesus, brought together in the Rerum Novarum Center, focus especially on these people, marginalized in Taiwanese society. The Center has not only organized a fundraising campaign to provide for their material needs, but has also offered to accompany them, an accompaniment that warms their hearts. When he visited the social Center in the fall of 2019, Father General showed particular interest in the project related to the fishermen; he was touched by the very difficult situation of these men, whose condition resembled a modern form of slavery. He expressed his support, and encouraged the Jesuits in Taiwan to continue their social apostolate with these fishermen.
The Chinese Province has made a video on the subject; take time to watch it!
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