Claver Network: Colors of Networking

This post was written by Juan José Lavaniegos and Sergio Cobo sj.

People and institutions become partners when we see fruits that we could only achieve with the support of others. But that spontaneous collaboration that we see in small, homogeneous communities of the same colour is not so much for networking; it requires a determined extra effort from each member to look beyond himself and respond seriously to common challenges.

The Claver Network, founded in 2008 and made up of eleven development offices in ten Jesuit provinces in Latin America and the Caribbean, is linked in order to strengthen the collection mission for the support of social works in each province, but also for the joint effort in support of priority territories.

We share some features, different colours, of the offices that make up the Claver network:

• Schools, parishes and universities in Mexico and various provinces responded to the call of the Claver network, with the Loyola Foundation, to support the reconstruction of houses destroyed by the 2017 earthquake in Oaxaca. After a first step with 80 houses, government funding has now been secured for another 1,100 houses in that region.
  
• In the midst of Chile’s social and church crisis, its office “En todo amar y servir” continues to incorporate partners, an example of how to overcome adversity. The other teams in the network send fraternal greetings and videos to the Chilean team. The Province responds: “Thank you, your fraternal support is invaluable, we will continue to fight for a more just country”.
  
• The recent visit of Fr. General Sosa to Paraguay, November 11-14, reinforced the campaign of awareness of the drama of the Amazon. His Office promoted events of various Jesuit works, in line with apostolic preferences.
  
• The team from Peru traveled to the Amazon to support the development of material that is distributed in the eleven offices of the Claver Network and many Jesuit works in Latin America, to promote the Campaign “Let yourself be embraced by the Amazon”.
  
• The 8 Loyola Centers in Cuba, in a humanist cultural activity with children and young people, share the videos produced by the team in Peru, just to raise awareness about the ecosocial crisis in the Amazon.
  
• The “Spiritual Breakfasts”, with parents from our schools, are a monthly meeting promoted by the Office in Bolivia, where they share features of our Ignatian spirituality, with testimonies from different Jesuits.
  
• The reunification of Brazil into one Province is foreshadowing the nascent development office of that great country, with a primary focus on Jesuit and ecclesial work in the Amazon.

Also as a network we participated in the meeting of our “big sister”, the Xavier network, and in the meeting called by Fr. General Arturo Sosa, last May, in the Curia of Rome, with representatives of the 5 Conferences of the Universal Society, in a discernment on the best way to coordinate ourselves according to the Universal Apostolic Preferences.

These and other steps show us that it is not a matter of homogenizing all the nodes of the Network, but rather of enriching ourselves with diverse colors, diverse creative forms that complement each other in a common Cause. And they encourage us to continue to function as Red Claver, in coordination with other networks of the Conference of Provincials of the continent.

Our main challenges: to transcend the localist mentality, to achieve not only more fundraising but to promote donors as friends and partners of our mission, to define regional strategic priorities.

Networking, a determined effort to look beyond oneself It’s not a fad, it’s a necessity. It is a confluence of friends and partners for the mission, a strategy for challenges that involve us all.

Juan José Lavaniegos and Sergio Cobo sj.