By Thierry-Jean Roboüam, SJ | Loyola Centre for Ecology & Justice, Province of Sri Lanka
[From “Jesuits 2024 - The Society of Jesus in the world”]

In Sri Lanka, an ecological centre of the Society of Jesus is being reborn to offer ways to improve living environments. Humbly and slowly, things are changing for the better... and smiles are blossoming.

One morning, gazing out over the Trincomalee Bay, I finally realised what I wanted to do to reorganise an ecological centre that had fallen into disrepair. The option, among others, was simply to work with the most marginalized people in favour of a joyful, smiling and itinerant ecology. Two years later, having suffered several health, financial and political crises, our centre is running dozens of projects at the service of thousands of underprivileged families. Involving those families, we are working to solve their problems with our own means.

There are smiles and laughter that cannot be fake; they appear naturally and light up faces. In daily life, it is these smiles that give me the strength to carry on. They shine on the faces of the parents whose children are in our care, on the wrinkled faces of those who receive our canvas bags, on the faces of the families we help to tend their vegetable gardens. In a world where the computer revolution has made us anxious and bitter, where environmental activism atrophies the muscles that help us smile, clenches the jaws and wrinkles the brows, we decided to take our time and work on long-term solutions, at the pace of the poor.

When in 2020 the Provincials of Sri Lanka and Japan invited me to restructure a Jesuit centre dedicated to ecology, I did not hesitate for a moment. The centre faces the magnificent deep, fish-rich Trincomalee Bay, on the Eastern side of the island of Sri Lanka. But this picture postcard view dissimulates poorly the effects of pollution. Day after day, plastic bottles and other toxic products pour into this beautiful body of water, bordered by some of the most bio diverse areas of the world. Pollution progresses in an insidious way, and therefore looks very much like a natural phenomenon. Every day, people clean up in front of their doors and collect leaves and plastic waste that they burn. These are the most ordinary activities of daily life: polluting waste is treated just as natural waste, and toxic fumes are inhaled without concern.

The project of this Jesuit run centre is to promote an ecology that adopts natural gestures, respecting the religious and social roots of these habits, and seeking for what, in everyday life, could offer a solution. A simple approach does not make much noise, and does not claim to be the solution to “Climate Change” and other problems of global injustice. It is a response to two fundamental insights. First: that only the build-up of local solutions has a global effect. And, second, that any local solution must foster the ability of even the marginalized to solve their problems. This is our approach to globalisation.

Our original purpose may be a surprise to you. We did not want to offer theoretical solutions to problems inherent to poverty. For us, poverty is not a problem but a reality. We discover imbalances that hint at innovations, silent solidarity and ingenious know-how. This reality is in itself a source of solutions to environmental problems. We hope these remedies will have positive effects on the local economy. Our love for these families has made us cautious. The economic transformation of a region should not be at the cost of increased environmental damage.

Our itinerant ecology takes us from village to village. Everywhere we start by listening, looking, smelling, touching and breathing... Sri Lankans are fond of bags and use them in daily life. That’s why the Loyola Centre for Ecology and Justice has opened three sewing workshops that make thousands of canvas and jute bags, which are then distributed free of charge to families in need in order to reduce the use of plastic. We talk a lot, and I love those moments when the seamstresses show me their work. They are beaming: they know how to surprise me and don’t get offended when I make practical suggestions. We teach in schools and the children are our ambassadors who in turn educate their parents. We transform palm wood into tables, pots and towel racks. In the skilful hands of our workers coconuts become soap dishes or buttons. The economic crisis stimulates the poor people to cultivate their own vegetable garden. But they need seeds. So, in one year, we have provided seeds to a thousand families.

This pilot project, supported by keen benefactors – a project born in the heart of Sri Lanka with Sri Lankans and the Society of Jesus of Sri Lanka – promotes silent transformations that generate long-term solutions to the rhythm of the laughter and smiles of the poorest.