2rd Feb 2022

JRS is present in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and other parts of South East Europe responding to the crisis caused by violence and displacement.

23rd Jan 2021

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Cambodia opened Arrupe Way on 23 January to celebrate 40 years since the foundation of JRS by Fr Pedro Arrupe and 30 years of JRS Cambodia. We also celebrated that the Nuclear Ban Treaty became International Law on 22 January by setting up a special section in our disarmament room. Pedro Arrupe was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1944. There he walked the streets, tending the injured.

3rd October 2019

The “Global Conference on Assistance to Victims of Anti-Personnel Mines and Other Explosive Remnants of War, and Disability Rights” was held in Amman, Jordan last 10 – 12 September 2019. This conference was called by the United Nations to try creating new ideas about successful improvement of the quality of life of the people suffering due to weapons of war. Sister Denise Coghlan, member of the Governance Board of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) and Tun Channareth, Ambassador for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, were panelists and speakers for the event.

Prince Mired bin Ra'ad bin Zeid of Jordan, a staunch advocate, called for urgent action regarding the matter. The Cambodia Campaign against Landmines remembered the history of the victim assistance in the country. It was a hard-won battle. Survivors themselves named the three pillars of the campaign: 1) Universal Ban on Landmines, 2) Clearance of Landmines, and 3) Support for those who were Injured by Landmines or better known as Victim Assistance.

Some younger victims spoke. One was a sports hero. Another was a young woman who made everyone laugh during her speech. She recalled her conversation with her beautician, asking to have her toenails painted. The beautician only saw one leg, but the young woman insisted that she will pay for two.

This conference a review leading up to the Mine ban Conference which will take place in Oslo at the end of November 2019. In an interview with Tun Channareth, he stressed that recent conference is a reminder to every government to understand the people who suffered because of weapons of war. He urges that the government hurry up and sign the treaties that bans these weapons all over the world. “It is a new century already. We do not want any more delay in bringing peace and justice in this world. It’s time,” he added.

2nd October 2019

JRS Cambodia recently released a publication discussing the Human Trafficking Situation in Cambodia. As a popular source, transit, and destination for human trafficking victims, Cambodia ranks in the top 10 countries in the world where modern slavery is happening. Many of the victims are in the involved in the fishing industry, manufacturing sector, street begging, domestic servitude, commercial sex, and forced marriages.

The advocacy booklet provides a comprehensive discussion of the Cambodian Human Trafficking Situation. It also discusses the legal framework of human trafficking in the country, from victim identification, investigation, criminal prosecution to aftercare, inter-agency coordination, and current cross-border coordination. It analyzes the current challenges faced by the country in three (3) major aspects: prosecution, prevention, and protection.

Lastly, the advocacy booklet urges state and nonstate actors to fight for the advocacy. It argues that ending human trafficking should be a global priority. The booklet will be distributed in the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific Regional Meeting this 7 – 12 October 2019. Participating countries include Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines.

2nd October 2019

JRS Cambodia and the community built a kindergarten with the help of the funds raised by the Assissi School. Led by Chea Sarom, the construction of the school was finished within 3 months.

On the Opening Day, the villagers gathered around and welcomed 11 students from the Assissi School. The students engaged with the children and other community members through playing, reading, and tree planting.

JRS Cambodia also partnered with the Angkor Garden Foundation in providing the school supplies. Both NGOs have coordinated with the government, who committed in deploying a teacher and paying the salary.

This new kindergarten and preparatory school will accommodate around 50 kids from Ou Trach Village starting November 2019.

2nd October 2019

Mindol Metta Karuna welcomed thirty-two (32) children left behind by migrant parents from Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap last 2 – 13 September 2019. They participated in a catch-up school camp, providing them with supplementary knowledge before the official start of classes this October 2019. The camp focused on Math and Khmer, but also included English, Computer, Music, Environment, Peace and Sports.

Classes start at 8:00 am and ends at 4:30 pm. After an entire day of interactive learning, the children are free to play around the center. There is a children’s room filled with different toys – from animal figurines, houses, and dolls to building blocks, puzzle pieces, and coloring books.

The big hall is a huge space with matts on the floor. It is perfect for lying down while reading various story books in the shelves surrounding the matts. The books are available in both English and Khmer languages. The big hall also gives access to different sports equipment: skipping ropes, soccer balls, shuttle cocks and badminton rackets, and even table tennis pads.

For some of the kids, the music room is the best place to be. After classes, the children play various musical instruments and groove to the music in the hall. Some even watch animations and movies in one of the unused classrooms. Mindol Metta Karuna has prepared all these just for them.

The last day was filled with both laughter and tears as the children recall their amazing and fun-filled experience the past 2 weeks. All the staff, teachers, and other members of the team gather around to say goodbye as the children are sent off to their respective rural villages. The following are the dedicated member of the team: Sok Eng, Chan Men, and Hem Sue (Khmer); Yoem Sreynich (Math); Hyacenth Bendana (English); So Not (Music); Sak Sopheak (Computer); Tun Channareth (Peace); Sok Chet (Environment and Sports).

20 June 2019

MESSAGES FROM OLD REFUGEES ON WORLD REFUGEES DAY

Sony, I was a refugee in Vietnam, Now I help Rohingya Montagnards and people from Pakistan, Syria who face persecution.
Stop hate speech and discrimination.
May our world have Metta Karuna (Loving Kindness). Read more ...

June 26, 2018

HOW CAN WE WORK TOETHER TO WELCOME, PROMOTE. INTEGRATE PROTECT?
MINDOL METTA KARUNA SIEM REAP CAMBODIA 28 29 30 NOVEMBER 2018

This workshop will gather people from the region experienced in the area of asylum seekers refugees, vulnerable migrants (including trafficked) and stateless people to reflect and share on needs in different countries and ways to meet them effectively. At the end of 2018 two new global compacts will be signed one on refugees and one on migration which address ways governments and civil society and the business community can act cooperatively to respond to the forced displacement of peoples. So this a special time to reflect on where we are and what next. It is a time to rethink, see what we can do together and get some new ideas for work in our own countries. It is a workshop where we can learn from experts from UNHCR and IOM, from academics and network coordinators, from those affected, from government and from one another. There will be panels to inform, to stimulate and to call us to think outside the box. If you come we want you to contribute your ideas in group work and in ideas for concrete actions. Peace justice and hospitality to the newcomer are all possible and we can make it happen.

The workshop will be held at Mindol Metta Karuna Siem Reap Cambodia on 28 29 30 November.2018

If you would like to know more please contact jrscambodia@gmail.com

June 20, 2018

Here are the key facts you need to know:
1. In 2017, 68.5 million people were driven from their homes across the world. This is more people than the population of Thailand.
2. There are 25.4 million refugees in the world. This is 2.9 million more than in 2016, also the biggest increase UNHCR has ever seen in a single year.
3. New displacement is also growing, with 16.2 million people displaced during 2017 itself. That is an average of one person displaced every two seconds.
4. The biggest number of displaced come from the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the war in South Sudan and the flight into Bangladesh from Myanmar of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees.
Read more ...

You can read the full UNHCR report here: http://www.unhcr.org/5b27be547

June 20, 2018

At the same time as we salute the strength, courage and resilience of refugees around the globe. We note also the horrors asylum seekers experience in 2018:

• - The war and bombings in Syria and Yemen with children crying under the rubble
• - The religious and ethnic persecution of the Rohingyas
• - The capture and separation of children by the US on the Mexican border
• - The holding of refugees offshore and stopping services in Australia
• - Extreme poverty and starvation in parts of Africa.

UNHCR, Refugee Status Determination Backlog Prevention and Reduction, January 2018, PPLA/2018/03, http://www.refworld.org/docid/5b1a38374.html

JCAP News 11-22 July 2015

We are united in our desire to promote peace and reconciliation, says Fr Sosa after first dialogue with Buddhists

20 July 2017

Highlights of the Visit:

• The Happiness the presence of Father General brought to the whole team, which included Christians and Buddhists, people with disability, women and men, people who had been refugees in the camps, national and international members, some of whom were Jesuits.

31 January 2016

At the ICRC/CCP legal seminar Chan Neng a survivor asked the military of Cambodia to join the Convention on Custer Munitions (CCM). The Military Representative said they were still studying the issue but he felt they would join.
The CCBL Representative said she believed Cambodia would soon see that the humanitarian suffering they caused far outweighed the military usefulness of cluster munitions.

Tun Channareth and So Not of the Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions (CCBL) accompanied the new leaders of CMAA with MAPU, NPA, MAG and CMAC to the cluster munitions fields. Several dogs trained by NPA are ridding Rattanakiri of Cluster Munitions.

President Obama has stopped transferring cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia for use in Middle East.

1 March 2016

IF

Sufficient funding is made available to the competent, dedicated clearance teams.
Operators are given full access to the border mine fields.
A body is responsible for the clearance of any residual ordinance found after 2025.

18 Feb 2016

2016 Primary Focus on:
Stigmatizing use of Cluster Munitions to strengthen the Norm and Universalization of The Convetnion on Cluster Munitions

9 February, 2016

Daily, The Syrian/Russian joint military operation is dropping cluster bombs in Syria. Shame on Syrian government for killing their own people with this horrendous weapon.

Campaigners STIZMATIZE USE OF CLUSTER BOMBS

Use Facebook to speak out against this.

CALL CAMBODIA TO JOIN THE CONVENTION ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

PRESIDENT OBAMA