Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
We look to the positive for each other
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Women 4 Women meets monthly at JRS UK as a peer support for women who have been made destitute by the UK asylum process. Facilitator and participants share why it matters.
All the ladies who come have no way to get money so we have to help them for transport and also for food, so they can eat first. Sometimes they are hungry when they come, so a fruit or biscuits helps them.
“For me, it has improved my life, otherwise, there is nothing for me to do in the day, you take it away, you take away my life. The others, they need it too. The staff are very friendly, we look to the positive for each other. I appreciate it very well.”
For the women's peer support group, it is a very clear piece of time for them, doing exercises, learning how to do massage or some mediation, it is time out for them. It is about their wellbeing, to feel, they can focus on themselves, such when we do creative things. They do drawing or colouring, expressing themselves in some way, they have gone back to a time in their lives that they can't have now, when they can just be.
We started off with 4 and those who have moved on have their papers, but it allows others new to come in as others move on. There is now a stability (in the midst of very chaotic lives). This year we started with a couple of Eritrean women who have now brought their friends. There is a sense of belonging and connectedness, it is not just a piece of fruit or the bus fare that they benefit from.
It depends on the person, but it can give a certain confidence. Some come uncertain and withdrawn, but now are more expressive and relaxed around people. It helps them more to be themselves also. Their confidence has been shattered with what they have been through.
“As asylum seekers we have lost our competence. I would like to improve, to do some training, share skills in cooking, baking, sewing, drawing... all creative things where we can have the satisfaction that we have made something from start to finish. To have some skills where in future I will be able to learn to stand again on my own two feet.”
A couple of participants now help lead. One has come out of herself and has more confidence and tremendously helpful. They help with preparation and good to see women who have had the same experiences can now lead.
Make a donation to help pay the bus passes of the women who attend: www.justgiving.com/jesuitrefugeeservice
World Refugee Day - Push Forward, Not Back
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A woman
rejoices during traditional dances at the International Women's Day celebration
in Doro refugee camp, Maban, South Sudan (Angela Wells / Jesuit Refugee
Service). - See more at:
http://en.jrs.net/news_detail?TN=NEWS-20150609094306#sthash.LUkLGWqh.dpuf
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A
woman rejoices during traditional dances at the International Women's
Day celebration in Doro refugee camp, Maban, South Sudan (Angela Wells /
Jesuit Refugee Service). - See more at:
http://en.jrs.net/news_detail?TN=NEWS-20150609094306#sthash.LUkLGWqh.dpuf
Rome, 15 June 2015 – For World Refugee Day this weekend, the Jesuit Refugee Service urges you to remember that the key to change is within each of us. While governments decide to accept or reject refugees, only we have the power to truly welcome them. We must change our fixed view of refugees as 'the other.'
Refugees around the world are being pushed back and pushed out. Australia is pushing refugees from Nauru to Cambodia. Colombians are being kicked out of Venezuela. Kenya has threatened to expel nearly half a million Somali and other refugees. Boats with Rohingya asylum seekers are turned away again and again by countries in Asia Pacific, left stranded at sea. Thousands of people are drowning attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East and North Africa.
Even where refugees are not literally expelled, they are often shunned, mistreated or jailed. Their very presence is criminalised, and they are often excluded from their host communities. In South Africa, foreigners are facing violence and riots, forcing them to flee their homes. In Europe, refugees are forced to rely on the informal labour and housing markets. In the United States, refugees fleeing widespread violence in Central America are held in detention.
The key to change need not always be a top-down approach. Swedish policy makers have exemplified that leaders can encourage this shift in our societal perception, but we must start with our own individual perceptions. Refugees are the 'we,' the 'us,' as opposed to 'they' or 'them.' Let's not just save lives; let's save dignity.
"Integration and hospitality are not only about opening our borders, but opening our communities. The latter does not result from the decisions of a few leaders, but from our own personal decisions. To change our countries we must start with our communities, and to change our communities we must start with ourselves," said JRS International Director Peter Balleis SJ.
We can push governments to welcome refugees, but let's not wait indefinitely for the macro decisions of our leaders to trickle down. Let's micromanage change in our own communities.
"We must all be able first to see, and then help others to see, migrants are not a problem to be solved. They are our brothers and sisters who need help, who should be welcomed and loved," said Kenyan refugee and Jesuit Refugee Service international volunteer, Anthony Mukui.
So let's not push back; let's push forward – push ourselves, our neighbours and our communities to open our doors. Then, together we can unlock potential. Together we can welcome. Together we can advocate. Together we can.
Visit a videoclip: here
For more information:
Jacquelyn Pavilon
International Communications
Jesuit Refugee Service
Tel: +39 06 69868 609; +39 348 993 1544
Jacquelyn.Pavilon@jrs.net
@JesuitRefugee
facebook.com/JesuitRefugeeService - See more at: http://en.jrs.net/news_detail?TN=NEWS-20150609094306#sthash.LUkLGWqh.dpuf
This story is originally from JRS international website: here.
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We are the Light! - A Reflection on Situations in South Sudan
Stephen shares his memories and concerns from his JRS work in East Africa.
This is one of my favourite pictures from my time in JRS East Africa taken by Sr. Lolin Menendez over ten years ago.Take a bit of time to just look into this little displaced girl’s face ….
She is displaced in Southern Sudan from the war event which disrupted the whole country post-1991. Now you may have seen a completely new generation of displaced people as shown in a recent Comic Relief TV documentary; displaced people from the new civil war post South Sudan’s independence in 2011.
The badge of her school hanging around the girl’s neck (picture) noted the motto of her school in Nimule, ‘We are the Light’. Note the light of trust and hope that shines from her face. There is also perhaps a hint of weariness that would have come from living in harsh conditions and the uncertainty in what is going on around her. This same touching innocence came through the recent TV documentary I mentioned. Young people talking of their situation and needs which puts the violence of war into such stark relief. Whatever the politics, these young people surely deserve a future. What can I or you do to help in some way?
Stephen Power SJ is Treasurer of JRS UK. JRS UK is part of JRS International which works in more than 50 countries worldwide. South Sudan continues to go through difficult times as it seeks to establish a sustainable peace settlement and continue its journey as a new country.
Here in JRS International website, you can read about recent situations in South Sudan. We hope that many of you join us in prayers for peace, justice, and reconciliation in the region and other troubled parts of the world.
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