Jesuit Program Breaks Culture of Violence in Refugee Camps

Bhutanese refugees collecting drinking water 

at the Sanischare refugee camp in eastern Nepal (courtesy UCAN)

The Jesuit Refugee Service has stepped in to break a cycle of violence, drug and sexual abuse that had been plaguing thousands of ethnic Nepali youths from Bhutan living in refugee camps in East Nepal.

“All kinds of evils were plaguing the camps,” says Jesuit Father Peter Jong Lepcha, program coordinator of Youth Friendly Centres (YFC).

“We realized that there are so many programs being implemented for the refugees in general but nothing for the youth as such.”

The YFC program is part of the Jesuit Refugee Service’s(JRS) Bhutanese Refugee Education Program, supported by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Caritas Nepal. Read more about the program here.

Regional Director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA Blogs from Sri Lanka

Jesuit Father Kenneth Gavin, the Regional Director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, is in Sri Lanka this week for a meeting of JRS Regional Directors. He will be writing daily updates on what it is like in Sri Lanka, seven months after the end of a devastating civil war that left tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. You can read Fr. Gavin's dispatches from Sri Lanka at the JRS/USA blog here.

Jesuit Uses Camera to Tell Refugees' Stories

Photo Courtesy Creighton University 

Jesuit Father Don Doll has seen corners of the globe few Americans ever will.

Fr. Doll, a journalism professor at Creighton University in Omaha, has photographed war-torn countries where refugee camps are commonplace. In April, Doll was with Jesuit Refugee Service, an international Catholic relief agency, in eastern Chad along the Darfur border where he was among 250,000 Sudanese refugees.

Doll said his goal as a photographer is to provide an honest depiction of what is taking place. In an interview with the Milwaukee Catholic Herald, Doll discussed his work as a photographer and the images he has captured.

“I like pictures that show what a serious situation it truly is,” said Doll, who has photographed for National Geographic magazine. “Sometimes you can just sense in their eyes the horrors of what they’ve seen. There’s a heaviness in their heart.”

To read more about Doll's work in the Sudan with Jesuit Refugee Service, click here. 

To see Doll's images taken of Sudanese refugees in Chad, please visit his website, Magis Productions.