Philippine trip - workshop on "Social Enterprise"

Between 18^th to 21^st of July 2014, as like as the representative for the Casa Ricci social service Macau, the author of this article participated for the first time to the annual seminary “explore and develop social services in Asia” that was organized by the Society of Jesuit in Asia, topic of thel seminary for this year was "social enterprise."

 

 

The author of this article have great experience in social work relationships during these past years, so the question of "social enterprise" is not unfamiliar. But in this "trip to the Philippines", the biggest gain was to have the opportunity to know the different Jesuit communities of different countries and regions, and to understand their regional life, culture and working style.

 

Representatives participated in this annual seminary came from countries and regions as China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Spain, Australia and Philippines, Philippines was the organizer country and had accommodated adequately and effectively all the necessaries for the participated regions and countries,  topic of the seminary “social enterprise”  had been treated and discussed smoothly.

 

In conclusion, in the topic of "social enterprise", we could observe different ways that the regions and countries coming to develop, some of them preferred to make it more commercial and some chose to treat it as social service, the author of this article think that it would be necessary to analyze the different actituds of these countries and regions, on purpose for the future unification of Jusuit organizations in these countries, though it would be a hard mission, we still need to intend, to turn the "social enterprise" into really a social service for all.

"social enterprise” should be a service represents the Jesuits own image, service, mission and the principal philosophy.

 

                                                                                                      Pedro Leong

                                                                                          Macau Ricci Social Services
                                                                                                       2014/09/08

My First Visit to the Lepers

(Text written by a visiting Jesuit Fr. Federico)

Part of my visit to the Chinese province included a visit to two leprosaries in Mainland China: One in Anhui province, and the other in Shaanxi province. These two centers belong to the government. I went there with Fr. Fernando and one collaborator of Casa Ricci’s with a lot of experience in social services.

I had never visited a leprosary before, so this was a new experience for me, although serving sick people has been of my life as a Jesuit.

 

A nurse cleaning the wounds of a leper in Anhui

 I must confess that the first sensation I felt was disease: I was not afraid of the illness itself, I was told that it would not be a risk for me, but the sight of those big, open wounds refusing to heal even after years of treatment really impressed me. I wonder how they live it. I hope that the fact that they have jobs inside the leprosaries like working in the kitchen or in the fields helps them to maintain some dignity.

The service we provide to those people is “just” this: living among them and spending the mornings washing their wounds and medicating them, in sometimes very big institutions run by the Chinese government and by “we” I mean both Casa Ricci that manages our presence there, and the Sisters who actively work there.

 

In Shaanxi Province nurses sisters share their experiences

 
At first my western spirit was pretty critical towards a lot of things that need to be improved: hygiene, rules for the sake of the sick people, efficiency, etc. While there are in fact margins for improvements, I started to notice how much this smallness and imperfections are actually the signs of our presence in Mainland China.

I think this is even more valuable since it’s done under the supervision of the government, in a hidden but official presence. I hope this can contribute to kick off some prejudices towards the Catholic church, we are collaborating with the Chinese officials for the same good: the well being of the sick and marginalised people in China.