The Secretariat for Social Justice and Ecology at the time of COVID-19

Profiting from the expertise of the Xavier Network emergency group, the SJES designed a global map showing the needs created by the pandemic and the responses given them. This simple mapping exercise was intended, a) to obtain information on the present status of works in the social apostolate in terms of the opportunities and difficulties encountered, b) to catalog innovative responses, actions taken and plans made, and c) to learn how best to confront this moment of emergency and plan the recovery phase. This survey included other Jesuit international works such as Fe y Alegría and JRS.

Out of 284 who responded to the survey, some 128 were social centres/institutions from all six Jesuit Conferences. The rest of the respondents were from international networks such as JRS, Fe y Alegría and other works. The survey shows that these 128 social centres are reaching out to a little more than 1 million people around the world, of which 52% are new beneficiaries. Despite the lockdown situation in many countries, 94% of these social centres either are providing minimum services remotely or are functioning partially. Emergency responses include awareness-raising, humanitarian services such as providing shelter, health care, food products, communication and contacts, advocating for the safety of migrants and the right to food and shelter for the poor and the vulnerable.

The hope is that this will provide us with some basic information for the needed collective discernment about how to establish global coordination for a joint strategic framework and common action both now - to respond to the emergency - and later during the recovery phase. To see a visual summary of the results of the survey, click here.

The Secretariat has also created a new section, Covid-19, within its Website in order to strengthen our global communication strategies and to share news and reflections, global concerns and best practices within the Society of Jesus at this time of the pandemic.

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Posted by Communications Office - Editor in Curia Generalizia
Communications Office
The Communications Office of the General Curia publishes news of international scope on the central government of the Society of Jesus and on the commitments of the Jesuits and their partners. It also handles media relations.

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