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Sun, May

The Palu-Donggala earthquake happened at 5.02pm, local time, Friday, 28th September, 2018. It was a shallow quake, with its centre at a depth of 10 kilometers. Registered on the Richter Scale at 7.4, it caused a tsunami, liquefaction and landslides which created an horrific disaster for the people. The four districts that were most effected are Palu City, the Regency of Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Moutong.

“From its very beginning the Arnoldus Family has been facing and responding to the serious social problems of the times. In this tradition, we have continued working on the social issues. Living in the present world, where people are suffering from so many different and complex social problems, we felt that our response needed to be embedded more than ever in JPIC.

In a small corner of Manila, homeless children find food and bath, and a little prayer, courtesy of a religious congregation who thought of feeding and giving the poor a new start every day.

 

Incidents of violations of Child Rights are common in most parts of India. Even today there are children forced to work, forced to marry, children who do not have adequate shelter and are deprived of education amidst various issues of child protection. As part of our efforts in promoting child rights and their safety, Sarva Seva Sangh, Pune, an organization working with children at risk, conducted two awareness sessions on child rights and protection for the Government Railway Police (GRP) on 27th March 2018. The first session was at the GRP Divisional Head Quarters, Pune, which was participated by 60 GRP personnel from Pune, Miraj and Ahmad Nagar including Dr. Prabhakar Budhavant (Superintend of Police), Mr. Tushar Patil (ASP), and Mr. Dabde (Dy.SP). The second session was in the GRP station at the Pune railway station, participated by more than 20 GRP personnel.

VIVAT International Indonesia along with several NGOs and civil society organizations have conducted a survey to the three subsidiaries of palm oil plantations owned by the Wilmar International group  in the East Kotawaringin District of Central Kalimantan. The survey was primarily focused on two main issues, the rights of the laborers and child labor.

The International Women’s Day was celebrated on 9th March by the domestic workers and waste pickers women in Janvikas, Indore. More than 700 women representatives gathered from 35 slums of Indore city. Advocate Ms. Shanno Khan was the Chief Guest of the function. Dr. Sumitra Yadav (Professor, M Y Hospital) was the Guest of Honour. Other dignitaries were Fr. Xavier T (Provincial SVD India Central Province), Dr. Mathew CP (Principal, Indore School of Social Work), Frs. Nicholas Martis, Jomon and Michael.

Picture from left to right: Rev. Sabino Ocan Odoki, bishop of Arua Diocese/Uganda and his friend (Italy)

The SVD Generalate Community received on February 8th the visit of the bishop Arua Diocese, Rev. Sabino Ocan Odoki. He was welcomed by the superior general Fr. Heinz Kulueke and some members of the Congregation leadership team. Since last year, the Divine Word Missionaries (SVDs) are working in the Bidibidi refugee settlement, in the Yumbe district of the West Nile Region of Uganda which is considered the largest refugee settlement in the world according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The total number of refugees in this settlement alone is more than 272,000. Please, listen the interview of Rev. Sabino by Fr. Arlindo Dias, SVD.

Ishwani Kendra and St. Arnold's School, Pune (India) organized a musical of peace and unity on the theme Children Making Change. The musical was preceded by reading of scripture passages on peace and unity from various religions. The event was also organized to raise funds for humanitarian activities.

By: Fr. Mathew Korattiyil, SVD

We, the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Coordinators of the SVD ASPAC Zone met in South Asia from September 3 – 9, 2017. We shared our activities, concerns, challenges and hopes that we experienced in the past 4 years. Our commitments vary, such as migrants and refugees, human trafficking, indigenous, environment, disaster relief, poverty, HIV/AIDS, land grabbing and other issues.

Kenya goes to the polls on 8 August 2017. The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops has invited their faithful and all people of good will, to join in praying for the country. After the 2007 general election, Kenya experienced its worst politically triggered ethnic violence since independence. The violence was caused by a dispute between the two main presidential candidates Raila Odinga and the former President Mwai Kibaki, who was defending his seat on a Party of National Unity ticket.

13 religious men and women, representing 7 religious congregations gathered on 10 July at the Generalate of the Augustinians in Rome to discuss collaboration for the promotion of human rights in West Papua. Most of the congregations are present in West Papua, working on various ministries.

On the second anniversary of the encyclical letter “Laudato si’ of Pope Francis on care for our common home, the new leaders of the Provinces, Regions and Missions of the Divine Word Missionaries, gathered in Nemi (Rome), show once more support for the message of the Holy Father expressed in the Encyclical letter. Likewise, they commit themselves to promote the invitation expressed in the encyclical in their respective countries and work together in building our common home.

This year, Madagascar experienced drought which retarded cultivation of food crops and planting in general. The fear is that the country may experience famine in the long run. According to the analyses made, we believe that, this might have been caused by the global climate change which is being caused by the behavior of man vis-à-vis creation. Normally, the rains set in, in late November. Nevertheless, they arrived in March. Very soon, the winter season will begin and many crops will not survive if no divine miracle is performed.


Sometimes people are so convinced that animals are more important than their fellow human beings. Some intentionally and convincingly turn to treat the latter with no love and respect whatsoever. In addition, they do not respect their human dignity. In some religions of the world, adepts will injure and kill their fellow human being should he or she kill or treat their totem accidentally or in self-defense. An example is the Hindu Religion, where cows are highly defended and treated as lesser gods.

Arnoldians’ Meet 2017  of the Divine Word Missionaries in India,  Mumbai (INM) was held at Divine Word Seminary, Pune from 20th to 22nd of April 2017, which was organised by the province Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) committee. The Meet was inaugurated by Fr. Tony Menezes SVD, Director, Ishwani Kendra, on 20th April in Britto hall at 9.30 am. This year too, the theme of the Arnoldians’ Meet was ‘Celebrating Plurality’. There were thirty nine children from four schools and three social centres/missions of SVD INM province who participated in the meet apart from teachers/staff.

“¡Primeramente Dios!” (God above all!) This unmistakably Mexican and Guatemalan expression gives you goose bumps when you hear it said by a temporary farm worker in French speaking Canada. It sounds like both a sigh of faith and a stinging plea for deliverance.

The Catholic community have been in existence, in the region of Chita, from the early nineteenth century. This community was predominantly Polish by origin and the members of this community worked in the Nerchinsk mining plants since 1939. In 1859, after the departure of the exiles from the Nerchinsk Factory, there were only seven Catholics in this area, so the priest suggested that, "it would be useful to build a Catholic Church in one of the cities where there are most Catholics". In Chita, Kyahte or Verkhneudinsk there were about eighty Catholics. In 1861 the decision was made to build a Catholic Church in the city of Chita. By mid-1878 the Church was finally built, and on September 10, 1878, it was consecrated under the patronage of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

One of the major Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) activities in Zambia Mission is about Integrity of Creation. Apart from tree plantation project, Zambia Mission implements “energy saving” project. In Zambia, it is normal that people cut trees, burn it to make charcoal, put them into sacks and bring them to market to sell.

Ramsagar is a remote rural village in Doultabad Mandal of Siddipet district in Telangana State. In such a remote rural place a free medical camp was organized by JPIC-INH in collaboration with DWSSS (“Divine Word Social Service Society”) for the benefit of the poor and the old, new born and the grown up, women and the disabled who were unable to reach the hospital for their own health problems due to lack of transport facilities and unaffordability.

 

Photojournalist Osman took this photo: Syrian child, thought he has a weapon not a camera so she Gave up.

By Fr. Heinz Kulüke and the Leadership Team

Jesus was born during a trip with his parents to the city of Bethlehem to register for a census ordered by the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. As a stranger, there was no place for him to be hosted. After his birth, he needed to take refuge in Egypt since Herod wanted to kill him. Because of these circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus, we often think about migrants and refugees during the Christmas season.

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