The General Curia is once again operational as host for those who have responsibilities for the leadership of Jesuit works and communities around the world. Many international events are taking place in the premises at 4 Borgo Santo Spirito.

Last week, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) held two meetings: one for its Board of Directors, which deals mainly with financial and personnel matters; the other for the regional directors, who took the opportunity to learn about the challenges faced in the countries where JRS is present and to offer each other valuable support through fraternal interaction.

We met some of the participants in these meetings. Here are their testimonies.

Mathieu Ndomba SJ

Provincial, Western Africa, member of the Board

The Board of Directors of JRS met in person, from 23 to 25 May 2022, at the Curia in Rome for the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the thirteen members who make up the Board, only two could not make the trip to Rome. Ordinary Board business was dealt with. What made this meeting special, however, was that, simultaneously, all the Regional Directors of JRS were meeting at the Curia.

The presence of these directors allowed Board members to gain a better understanding of the situation of the work in the field and particularly the level of implementation of the JRS 2020 Strategic Framework. JRS is an organisation that is consolidating its position in the humanitarian world and is developing strategies and resources for long-term work, given that the refugee issue will clearly not be resolved in the near future.

Cecilia Jimenez-Damary

Relator to the United Nations on the rights of Displaced persons

Attending the JRS Administrative Council in person in Rome for the first time gave me the opportunity to inter-act and engage, in dynamic and thoughtful ways, in current discussions and reflections on how JRS can strengthen its fulfilment of the Jesuit mission of service of faith and the promotion of justice. These three days enabled me to see how the difficult, but necessary, accompaniment of refugees and internally displaced persons is still possible in the current times, how we can further pursue, organisationally, the spiritual vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola to help others and seek God in all things.

I am likewise grateful for this opportunity of imbibing the spirit of kindness and hospitality in Rome, which is the same spirit of kindness and hospitality that we extend, through the JRS programmes, to refugees and internally displaced persons wherever they may be.

André Atsu

Regional Director, East Africa

The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) meetings are opportunities for us to discuss strategic issues of the organisation and make decisions about how we want to move forward. A couple of moment have been striking for me: 1) the meetings with the Administrative Council (AC) and 2) Fr. General’s address to us.

With the Administrative Council, we talked about our Strategic Framework and Global Sustainability plans and agreed on the way forward in these areas. The striking and laudable moment here is having these two highest bodies of the organisation coming together and discussing matters of highest importance.

Fr. General challenged us to think about what kind of organisation we want to be in responding to today’s needs, taking into consideration the complexity of the mission of accompanying forcibly displaced people. He also encouraged us to deepen our collaboration since, without it, we cannot do anything.

For me as Regional Director, these discussions, sharing of ideas and strategizing in the fulfilment of our mission and vision are very helpful as they are an opportunity of formation to help better the people we serve.