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We all need to be diligent advocates
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Louise Zanré, Director of JRS UK, shares her vision for a better world and invites us to join advocacy efforts alongside refugees to make the case for their dignity
Advocacy is one of the three parts of the JRS mission. We often spend a lot more time on accompaniment and service - I suspect because many of us attracted to working for JRS are what I think of as being at heart "people persons". We derive energy and inspiration from being present both with and two the people we accompany. We build relationships and endeavour to offer and to receive hope, dignity and justice through those relationships. And we often do not make enough of the advocacy opportunities we have had and the fact that peoples' lives are changed as a result.
Being a "people person" myself I get a great deal of pleasure from meeting new people and having the opportunity of explaining to them a little about the reality of the lives of the people we accompany, whether those left destitute by the asylum system in the UK or those who have been detained, and the work of JRS. As a person of faith and conviction I base much of that message I share on the values underpinning the mission of JRS. I dream of a new world of dignity and justice, where everyone is treated with equality and compassion. I hope that, when I speak to groups, or at events; when I have meetings with civil servants, politicians; when I attend network meetings of partner organisations; when I write articles, that I am able to speak with truth, compassion and with passion and that the people I address or meet with are better equipped to conceive of and to want to work towards that new world.
It is a big ask - of myself and of those listening - and I am sure that I am not always as effective as I might be. It is also a big ask as we are up against so much. There are too many myths about refugees and asylum seekers. The world is far from perfect and sometimes the issues we are confronted with can seem to be insurmountable. It is difficult to know what response to make to the fact that so many people are being forced to risk dangerous journeys to get to Europe; to the fears that so many people have over competition for resources, jobs, housing or health care provision.
However it is especially at this time when things can seem to be so dark and depressing that it is of particular importance that we do try our best to counter a prevailing message of blame, of not being able to be generous, of not being able to participate together in society.
A new immigration bill was announced recently in the Queen's speech. Unsurprisingly, the highlights make for pretty depressing reading - landlords having to check immigration status of prospective tenants to determine if they can legally rent housing to them, appeal rights only being permissible in immigration cases after deportation, making it more difficult for immigrants to get bank accounts, making money earned from illegal working the proceeds of criminal activity and therefore able to be confiscated, to name a very few. On top of existing restrictions they make the UK a very unwelcoming place indeed.
In the face of this we all need to be diligent advocates. We will be sharing with you campaigns against particular measures - whether to stop indefinite detention; to try and convince our government to resettle more refugees; or to lobby MPs about the immigration bill. But we will also be asking you to listen to the experiences of our refugee friends, their hopes and dreams. And we will be asking you to work with us to dream a new world, to try to be more welcoming ourselves in everything we do or say, to challenge injustice and to pray and reflect. Without our refugee friends and without you, nothing I nor JRS can do will substantially change things.
A Poem
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| Photo by Dunbar Gardens, Fotor.com |
One of our refugees, Momodu wrote a poem titled Tuesday. Tuesday is not Sunday, Friday, or Monday. Shall we listen to what he has to say about this day of the week?
Tuesday be lucky
by Momodu
Tuesday be lucky
wake me up stronger
let me catch bus on time
make me not worry
Tuesday be lucky
let me strong
and keep long in the street
bring me knowledge
Tuesday be lucky
day of hardwork
take me safely on my journey
bring not any rain
Tuesday be lucky
let my talent show
bring me peace
Tuesday be lucky
you help me with my day
my day bless
and now I can rest
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All Are Welcome at the Table of God
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| A photo by Jürgen Treiber_Fotor.com |
Here is a reflection by Jyoti, who volunteers at the JRS Day Centre since 2
years
The
vision of the JRS Day Centre for me comes from the Bible: the table of God
where all are welcome, regardless of caste or creed. This is the place where all
are given their place, their respect. This is the atmosphere we have here and
this is the welcoming attitude we have for our guests.
I
like of course talking to each person! First of all opening the door… Open the
door, give a smile and a welcoming gesture. It is for me an openness to receive
each one, the receptiveness, and then you see the smile on the other’s side. One
of them who came recently was a new one, it was her first time. The day she
came she was really down, the second time she came here her face was so
peaceful and calm. I asked her and she said it was because I met the cheerful
people, the good people here.
That
is the difference we make. Those who come with their burdens, feelings of what
is happening to them… so even one smile makes a big difference. What I see
differently, what I have learnt myself as a volunteer, well as you can see, a
smile is my main motto here! Sincerely, despite all the difficulties, if they
can smile, what if I can not give a smile. I see that from the other side, so
it brings such a difference.
Then,
I was on the desk for the travel money. Money is a big thing in their life,
they don’t have money, and although we are giving little, it is very supportive
to them as other organisations do not give it, they have no access to money. So
JRS is doing a very purposeful work which can help them to go to the place they
want, the necessary solicitor or reporting at the Home Office. And all the
various activities of course, they are ways of freeing them from the tension. Like
the massage, the touch makes the person feel healed and loved, all the
activities for our guests are very down to earth, and so very helpful for them.
For
me dignity is one JRS value that is important to me. People come to the UK looking for
dignity a good life, but they end up with nobody respecting them. But this is
one of the place that we have that good practice or a very good deep model of
dignity. Overall I feel this is a place of hospitality where one feels at home
and each volunteer and staff member are so open to cater to our guests in a way
they feel welcomed. And of course our compassion to them in their suffering. We
give that to each person, respecting them as they are as a person, regarding
their person as the image of God.
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Praying with Refugees in the Middle East: Faith in Action
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| Jesuit Refugee Service team visits the home of a woman in Homs, Syria. (Tomy Kilahji / JRS Syria) |
Zerene Haddad, Regional Communications and Advocacy Office of JRS shares this story.
Beirut, 9 March 2015 – At a time of increasing extremism, people drift apart. Consumed by war and subjugated by fear, it is difficult to hold onto hope. The spectre of violence and terror has crept into all of our homes; we must make a great effort not to give in to despair.
January and February brought a grim start to the lives of millions of people in the Middle East. The violence in Syria and Iraq has escalated. Living conditions in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have become more difficult for refugee and local host communities. The bad news seems to flood in non-stop. The cold and bitter winter challenged people's resilience to the elements, and also to the war. The prospects of peace seems further away.
I am often asked if I find working at the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in this environment depressing. In some ways, if I allow it, it can be. The context in which we work is anything but cheerful. It is easy to be overcome with a sense of failure, loss and grief for what we have lost as a worldwide community, for how we have failed the Syrian people.
Usually when I feel that way, something happens – a conversation, an email, a random encounter – to remind me that I am privileged enough to work with people who defy this madness every day. They inspire me, even after four years of the same senseless violence. Across the region, my colleagues are working tirelessly to deliver vital emergency assistance, education, emotional support, care and most importantly hope to those who suffer and are threatened by the banality of death daily.
They do so without complaining, without demanding much. They do so because they believe it is their civic duty from one citizen to another. While we are all of different faiths and nationalities, we share a deep belief in our common humanity.
The home-visits teams spend time with people who are suffering intensely. These simple gestures reaffirm a sense of solidarity between people that the war has all but destroyed.
The children in our projects are taught the value of tolerance, dignity and respect for all, with the hope that as our future generations, they will repair what is now being broken.
Our teachers and staff lead by example, working in teams of mixed backgrounds, religions and ethnicities. Every day, they are the proof that violence and divisive rhetoric is not the only way to exist, nor the way forward for the region as a whole.
JRS teams in the Middle East carry out their work under immense pressure and often at great risk to themselves and their loved ones. Mothers, fathers, daughters and brothers, they are the embodiment of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. To put it simply, they are faith in action.
Reflections for prayer
As fear drives up walls between communities
of different ethnicities and religions, our teams dismantle these walls
through small acts every day.
Scripture for reading
Ephesians 4:2-4With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call.
This story is from JRS international website. You can visit here to see the original.
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Advent, Christmas 2014
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| Photo by lednichenkoolga from foter.com |
Sister Marguerite, a
volunteer with JRS, reflects on joy and suffering at this special time of
Christmas.
Today
is Gaudete Sunday, a day of rejoicing,
of joy as we await the birth of
Jesus. So many thoughts run through my mind as I write. Pope Francis’ Apostolic
Encyclical, ‘Evangelli Gaudium’, the Joy
of the Gospel, the Joy of the Good News, calls me and challenges us to
be people of joy. But how can there
be joy when there is so much suffering
and conflict in our beautiful but broken world right now? One has only to
turn on the TV or read the newspapers about Syria ,
Iraq
Paradox
of suffering suffused with joy, of joy embracing suffering. It
is just over two years now since I started volunteering with the Jesuit Refugee
Service. Only yesterday the person I had been visiting at the detention center was
deported, the pain of walking with
him in his suffering. But I need to
balance it with the wonderful surprise of a phone call last week from another
who was given permission to stay, her refugee status granted and inviting her
home for a meal to celebrate and share in her joy. Another courageous young man with astounding faith is still
in a detention centre. Paradoxically, instead of draining my energy, visiting
him gives me life. A terrific life example of one suffering intensely but with such faith and courage that brings a
deep joy in embracing his cross.
They,
each one, edify and challenge me and give me much, much more than what I am or
try to do for them. And yet, so many are still smiling amidst their suffering,
some for long years and wow! Their faith and courage are amazing. I would
probably have crumbled if I were in their shoes. ‘I see better now and my eyes hurt.’ (Audre Lorde). To keep believing
that God has become human, He knows, He understands and He is in everything,
both our joys and our sufferings. To learn again the great
paradox that the deeper the pain carved,
the more radiant the joy. In today’s
reading at Mass, the prophet Isaiah is also speaking to me and all of us, ‘He
has sent me to bring good news to the
poor, to bind up hearts that are broken…I
exult for joy in the Lord.’ Meister
Eckhart said, ‘What good is it to me for our Creator to give birth to His Son,
if I do not also give birth to Him in my place, my time, my culture?’
As
Christians prepare to mark Christ’s birth we can find ways to be more aware of
God’s presence in our world and our own lives right here and now! May God grant
us the grace to learn to be more aware of Her/His incarnate presence in
everyone and every experience, in joy and
in suffering. Let us pray earnestly
for peace which our world is in such need of today. May the Prince of Peace
give me, you, all people, peace in our hearts and homes, which will flow out to
our communities and the whole world. A Peace which only God can give, peace in
times of joy and especially in times of suffering. Joy to the world, the Prince
of Peace has come!
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Three Types of Listening
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Photo by Steven Shorrock, from Flickr.com
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Jesuit Refugee
Service UK is based at the Hurtado Jesuit Centre in East London. The Centre has
just completed a “listening exercise” in
the local neighbourhood. Kate, who works with JRS and at the Centre reflects on
the importance of listening when we are building relationships with other
members of our community.
What does listening
mean to you? What does the dictionary tell us it might mean? Here are three
meanings I found: “to give one’s attention to a sound” i.e. to be attentive, to
give ear to, to concentrate. Another
meaning: “to take notice and act on what someone says” i.e. follow what they
say, bear it in mind, take it into consideration, an active response to a request or some advice shared. And finally:
“make an effort to hear something, be alert and ready to hear” i.e. a sense of
listening out for something that might be missed, trying to catch something at
a deeper level or from a place
beyond where we already are.
Over the last six
months, at the Hurtado Jesuit Centre, we have set time aside to build
relationships with our neighbours and community partners in Wapping and across Tower
Hamlets. This meant us concentrating our attention on those around us, being
curious about their work, caring enough to find out what their needs are and
enjoy getting to know them. Sometimes it meant easy connections, otherwise it
was about popping by, building trust and creating space to listen.
Now we are at the
stage of reflecting on what we have heard: it is about taking notice of what
people were generous enough to share with us. Now we have gained the privilege
of being welcomed into other people’s projects and priorities, we need to
follow up on what they have said, to consider it carefully and explore with them
how we can act on what they have said matters to them. This is less about us
reaching out to offer something to others, but a process of getting to know
another and developing something jointly.
And as we search for
a sense of what is beyond where we are now, in terms of our programme, we hope
that we will be alert to the unexpected, open to fresh wisdom and willing to
respond to surprises. Community engagement is never boring, but hopefully we might
avoid being so busy that our imaginations get tired or that we get pressured
into taking the easy option. So we trust that as our Centre grows in maturity,
we continue to have time to welcome people each week, be responsive to real problems
and get involved in creative, challenging activities.
I wonder if these three types of
listening are ones that we can all bear in mind as we go about our busy
community work in our neighbourhood and local borough? To listen to one another
with respect as we share different perspectives and learn something new. To
listen with a view to putting what we have learnt into action, to really make a
difference in practical ways. And to listen out for that deeper wisdom or clues
for future community needs, changing trends and creative opportunities to work
together over the months ahead.
Read the
report of our findings “Welcome to Wapping: The Value of Community in a Tower
Hamlets Village” . One of the themes emerging from the report is Migration and
Immigration which will be developed with JRS-UK.
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Citizens UK Catholic Socialist Teaching Conference
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| Conference Room Abstract - photo by Tanakawho |
It was exciting to attend Tuesday's 8 October Citizens UK event on Catholic Socialist Teaching, hosted at Trinity School in Woodford, in Northeast London. The day brought together Catholic and Jewish community groups, with a Conference on Catholic socialist teaching in the morning, and solidarity action with Jewish groups in the afternoon, asking Redbridge Council to take in five vulnerable refugees from Syria.
The Conference was opened by Dr Paul Doherty, Head-teacher at Trinity school, who reminded us that Catholic socialist teaching is, in essence, written in the Gospel, calling upon the individual to destroy the old love of self and create a new love of the other. Catholic socialist teaching, like the Gospel, asks us to make a social action of involvement with the other.
After tea, we broke up in two groups. I joined the group of Sophie Stevens from Citizens UK, who made a short presentation of what it means to be a Leader. Sophie asked each of us to list one quality to describe a Leader. We came up with many: organised, active, passionate, team-oriented, firm, communicative, well-groomed, fair, courageous, creative, compassionate, patient, cooperative, articulate, trusted, listener, funny, soft-spoken, determined, outspoken, humble, intelligent… and concluded that no one person would possess all, but possibly some of these traits. Sophie concluded that since nobody is perfect, the only definition of a Leader is “somebody who has a following”. That was encouraging news, all of us in the room could be a Leader, as long as we had a following !
St Anne’s Catholic School Sixth Form students then presented a case study: the students had put together a listening campaign to understand the complaints by members in their community. The elderly in the community especially had felt intimidated by the students, and the poll made the students aware that together, each individual action of giving up a seat on the bus, or speaking with a quiet voice, could make a change in the community and in the perception of the school as a whole.
Before lunch, Citizens UK presented its Manifesto for Civil Society, inviting schools, faith communities, unions and voluntary organisations to participate in public life in anticipation of next year's general election. After salad and pizza, Mgr Armitage offered the closing address, reflecting on the significance of Catholic socialist teaching for the Catholic and the wider community, as a tool to make a change. Finally, Daniel Macintosh of Citizens UK invited all present, to join in the afternoon action with Bet Tikvah, a Jewish community organisation, marking the Jewish festival of Sukkoth. The action was local, showcasing several tents outside Bet Tikvah synagogue, illustrating the living conditions of refugees and asking Jas Athwal, the Leader of Redbridge Council, to accommodate five highly vulnerable Syrian refugees. I’m afraid I missed this last bit, as I headed home with the national representative of St Vincent de Paul Society, musing that the day had been one full of inspiration, encouraging us to work with others, and join in solidarity to defend the cause of the poor and the wretched.
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