A Jesuit Way of Emergency Response

International Solidarity on emergencies is one of the main sectors where the increasing collaboration and networking within the Jesuit apostolic body has been showing results for the last few decades. Traditionally, our unique organization able to respond to emergencies, when related to forced migration, was the Jesuit Refugee Service. Also Fe y Alegría has been able to respond to some of the crises due to its penetration on vulnerable communities and its global network capabilities. But these exceptions didn’t answer the question of how can the Society of Jesus coordinate and mobilize resources when it comes to humanitarian crises in response to natural disasters or conflicts. 

We must begin by admitting that we are not an institution for rapid emergency responses, but when an emergency hits a community in which we have a presence, our commitment makes us deploy all the necessary resources to collaborate with others in order to contribute what we can to alleviate the sufferings of people affected by these calamities. Our experience has been that times of disaster are important moments where the universal Society of Jesus and the whole Jesuit mission world express their solidarity and bond beyond all kinds of frontiers and differences. 

It is true that our strengths are clearly the accompaniment and support of communities in the medium and long term through social, educational and pastoral approaches, and that really shapes the way we understand any emergency response. Already in 2012 Fr. General summarized some important lessons regarding our way to respond to emergencies:

1. The first and most important response must take place with and from the Jesuit communities and institutions present at local level.
2. Our care for disaster victims must be both practical and spiritual, paying attention to all dimensions of the person, no matter their religious beliefs.
3. We are always open to cooperate humbly and generously with others locally and internationally.
4. Beyond spontaneous exchanges of information and experiences, we’ve understood the importance of formal processes for information sharing.
5. Any project we take responsibility for, should follow professional standards of transparency and accountability.
6. The international dimension of the Society should be used for awareness, media attention, prayer services, volunteer work, advocacy campaigns…
7. The financial help of the whole Society of Jesus can be key for the phases of early recovery or rehabilitation, when big agencies are already gone.
8. We should reflect on the long term and the root causes, work on disaster preparedness and warning systems, train people, change behaviors…

This way of proceeding has been key in the way we have been evolving on the international coordination for humanitarian emergencies and it is basic to understand how, nowadays, we are answering to the Ukraine crisis, as we will explain in another post.