Online retreat will mark 30 years of Jesuit Refugee Service

This November 14th we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Jesuit Refugee Service. We recall fondly Father Pedro Arrupe’s sound advice to “pray, pray much” as he encouraged the struggling first generation of JRS team members in Southeast Asia to bring the overwhelming challenges of their new apostolic work to the Lord in prayer.

Three decades later, we once again invite our JRS family — current and former staff members, Jesuits, friends and colleagues—to reflect prayerfully on the ways in which we discover the presence of God in our ministry with refugees and displaced persons.

In honor of our 30^th anniversary, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is introducing a free 30-day online retreat that links Ignatian Spirituality to the plight of refugees and vulnerable migrants.  It’s an easy way for people to fuse spirituality and social justice into your day .

The retreat will go live on November 1, and will be prominently linked on our home page.

The retreat links the Spiritual Exercises to the plight of refugees and vulnerable migrants and provides an easy way for people to fuse spirituality and social justice into their days.

INVITACION A PRESENTACION DE LIBRO NIÑEZ Y MIGRACION FORZADA

Estimados amigos y amigas:

Dentro de la actividades conjuntas programadas por los 20 años de la Convención de los Derechos de la Niñez y Adolescencia, el Observatorio de los Derechos de la Niñez y Adolescencia presentarà el dìa jueves 24 de junio a las 11 de la mañana en el Auditorio de Naciones Unidas (Amazonas frente al CC El Jardìn) el libro “NIÑEZ Y MIGRACION FORZADA. Niños en situación de refugio por el conflicto colombiano”.

Comentarán la publicación: Dr. Adrián Bonilla por el Observatorio de los Derechos de la Niñez y Adolescencia, Dra Lorena Escudero, Ministra Secretaría Nacional del Migrante (SENAMI), Señora Cristián Munduate, Representante de UNICEF en el Ecuador y Dra. Patricia Sarzoza, Directora del INFA.

La presencia de ustedes dará mayor realce a este encuentro. El libro será entregado a los asistentes.

UN enlists young people in Haiti rebuilding effort

Hoping to harness the energy and enthusiasm of young people, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has recruited dozens of them to help drive the reconstruction effort in the wake of last month’s catastrophic Haiti earthquake.

One of the 66 youth volunteers, Louis Anglade, 20, was studying to be a psychologist when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the impoverished Caribbean nation on January 12.

He hopes to return to his studies eventually because “as the country rebuilds, it’s going to need that kind of help,” he said, noting that for now, he is honing his ability to work with people in a time of extraordinary stress and vulnerability.

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Study: immigration crackdowns hurt children

New America media reports on the results of a study that shows the toll immigration enforcement takes on children.

According to the findings, children whose parents were detained for longer than a month experienced more changes in eating, sleeping, frequent crying, fear, anxiety, regression, clinginess, and aggressive behavior.

Sixty-eight percent of parents or caretakers questioned said they noticed at least three behavioral changes in the short-term, or three months after a parent was arrested. In the long-term, or nine months after an arrest, 56 percent of children ages 6 to 11 and 12 to 17 showed angry or aggressive behavior. The most typical changes were an increase or decrease in eating among all age groups.

Ajay Chaudry, co-author of the report and director of the Urban Institute’s Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population, discussed the findings at a forum attended by immigration policy experts and advocates.

“About 32,000 individuals are in detention on any given day,”Chaudry said, “while 16,000 individuals are released with alternatives to detention. We think that ratio can be flipped.”

Read more here.

Agencies urge protection of Haitian children

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a letter to three Cabinet secretaries February 4, the heads of five major Catholic agencies serving Haitian earthquake victims outlined steps that should be taken to ensure the protection of unaccompanied Haitian children in the aftermath of the January 12th earthquake.

The leaders of Migration and Refugee Services of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., and the International Catholic Migration Commission wrote on the topic of Haitian children, February 4, to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

“The compassion of the American people has been evident in their response to Haitian children who have been left alone after the earthquake,” the executives wrote.  “As social service providers with experience in handling unaccompanied children, we believe that certain processes should be established before such children are brought to the United States and placed in adoption proceedings.”

Preventing further trauma in Haiti

International community call for use of International Guidelines to ensure maximum protection of children

Just weeks after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on the Guidelines for the
Alternative Care of Children, the international community is struggling to provide appropriate care and
protection for children and families in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. The Guidelines are the
first international document on the care of children without parental care in non-emergency and
emergency situations.

Now is the time to apply the Guidelines within a coordinated international relief effort in Haiti.

The Guidelines stress that in emergency situations, the primary goal is to trace and reunify children
with their families to the maximum extent possible prior to any other permanent solution being
pursued. Even in the worst disasters, such as this, most children have extended family members
willing and able to care for them. No relief effort should inadvertently promote the separation of
children from their immediate and extended family. In particular, children in emergency situations
should not be moved to another country for the purpose of alternative care except temporarily for
compelling health, medical or safety reasons. If the latter is necessary, the Guidelines stress that
children should be moved as close as possible to their home, they should be accompanied by a parent
or caregiver known to the child, and a clear return plan should be established.

Haiti: Operation Protect Children

A Whole of Government Response to Haiti’s Most Vulnerable Children

The United States Government is deeply concerned about the welfare of children affected by the earthquake in Haiti and has pulled together its best and most experienced child protection and care personnel from Washington and the field.  Under the leadership of the US Government Special Advisor for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, this team is developing and initiating Operation Protect Children to shape and guide US Government action and to ensure that our efforts are coordinated with that of the international community and that they are implemented in close consultation with the Haitian Government.  This team is working on both immediate response issues as well as planning for the coming weeks, months, and years.

The US Government is committed to ensuring that every child who survived the devastating earthquake in Haiti is safe and protected. There are several groups of children who, due to their increased vulnerability, are receiving particular attention. These include children who have been separated from their families during the earthquake and children who were living in orphanages prior to the earthquake.

Many orphanages are caring for large numbers of children. However, it is important to note that most children living in these orphanages were placed there as a result of poverty, not necessarily because they are without a family. Until the status of parents and close relatives of children in orphanages can be determined, the US Government is assuming that family members or relatives are alive.

Pope urges respect for rights of child migrants, refugees and asylum seekers

“Underage migrants and refugees” is the theme chosen by the Holy Father for the ninety-sixth World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is due to be celebrated on January 17, 2010.

“The celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees once again gives me the opportunity to express the Church’s constant concern for those who, in different ways, experience emigration. This is a phenomenon which, as I wrote in the Encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate,’ upsets us due to the number of people involved and the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises on account of the dramatic challenges it poses to both national and international communities. The migrant is a human being who possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.“

“While the Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that the best interests of minors must always be safeguarded, recognizing their fundamental human rights as equal to the rights of adults, unfortunately this does not always happen in practice. Although there is an increasing public awareness of the need for immediate and incisive action to protect minors, nevertheless, many are left to themselves and, in various ways, face the risk of exploitation.”

“It is my heartfelt hope that proper attention will be given to underage migrants, who need a social environment that enables and fosters their physical, cultural, spiritual and moral development. Living in a foreign land without effective points of reference generates countless and sometimes serious hardships and difficulties for them, especially those deprived of the support of their family.

'Eyes of Hope' offers vision of understanding, education

Photojournalist Linda Smith wanted to develop an art program for children that utilized photography and had the potential to be successfully conducted in third world countries. As a result of her research and vision, the Through the Eyes of Hope Project was born in 2007. The project has two goals: to teach basic photographic principles to extremely disadvantaged children and to educate children who are interested in learning about the children of other cultures. “Through the Eyes of Hope Project” provides cameras and photographic workshops to children in Rwanda and U.S.

Eyes of Hope Kids is a blog where children in the “Through the Eyes of Hope Project,” exchange photographs and videos from the U.S. and Rwanda.

Their blog is meant for the children in the project to meet and interact with each other. Visit the blog by clicking here, and visit their main page above.