A grant from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration enabled Jesuit Refugee Service to build a multipurpose facility at Mai Aini refugee camp in northeastern Ethiopia. The camp is home to more than 13,500 refugees from neighboring Eritrea.

Jesuit Refugee Service works to promote the mental and physical well-being of refugees in Mai Aini, and to provide them with a positive use of their time — refugees in camps are generally stuck, with no jobs or other activities to fill their days —through provision of recreation activities (sports, music, theater and dance) and by providing a study space along with library services.

Learn more about JRS in the Horn of Africa on our website: jrsusa.org/campaigns_focus?TN=PROMO-20110802085741

In Ethiopia's Mai Aini refugee camp, Jesuit Refugee Service works to promote the mental and physical well-being of refugees and to provide them with a positive use of their time — refugees in camps are generally stuck, with no jobs or other activities to fill their days —through provision of recreation activities (sports, music, theater and dance) and by providing a study space along with library services. More than 13,000 refugees from Eritrea live in the camp.

Learn more about JRS in the Horn of Africa on our website: jrsusa.org/campaigns_focus?TN=PROMO-20110802085741

In Ethiopia's Mai Aini refugee camp, Jesuit Refugee Service works to promote the mental and physical well-being of refugees and to provide them with a positive use of their time — refugees in camps are generally stuck, with no jobs or other activities to fill their days —through provision of recreation activities (sports, music, theater and dance) and the provision of a study space along with library services. More than 13,000 refugees from Eritrea live in the camp.

Learn more about JRS in the Horn of Africa on our website: jrsusa.org/campaigns_focus?TN=PROMO-20110802085741

Over the course of two days, Rockhurst University students experienced a brief glimpse into refugees’ daily lives via the Jesuit Refugee Service/USA Refugee Campout.

When students entered the Finucane Jesuit Center, they were given refugee identity cards. Each ID told one refugee’s story from Vietnam, Burma, Sudan, Iraq or Colombia. It spoke about why the refugee fled their home, what happened to their family members and how they arrived in a camp.

Learn more at jrsusa.org/outreach

The mission of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is to accompany, serve and advocate for the rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons.

JRS works in more than 50 countries worldwide to meet the educational, health, social and other needs of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS services are made available to refugees and displaced persons regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or religious beliefs.

jrsusa.org

In the late 1970s, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, then Superior General of the Society of Jesus, was moved by the perilous journeys to exile of the Vietnamese boat people. Although the Vietnam War had ended in 1975, it was not until 1979 that great numbers of people began to leave the country and seek refugee elsewhere through clandestine, risky journeys by sea.

At that time Fr. Arrupe appealed to Jesuit major superiors for practical assistance. The spontaneous and generous 'first wave of action' provoked him to reflect on how much more the Society of Jesus could do if its responses to this, and to other contemporary crises of forced human displacement, were planned and coordinated. From that initial sentiment has grown a world-wide service to forcibly displaced people. On November 14, 1980, Fr. Arrupe announced the birth of Jesuit Refugee Service.

The history of JRS is about the lives and hopes of people we know personally. This personal knowledge constantly transforms our understanding. JRS opens a door — beyond transitory and shocking images — into the inspiring lives of people struggling to defend their rights, protect their families and give their children a future.