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Rotarians in Rome for Jubilee Audience focus on needs of refugees

(Vatican Radio) On the eve of a special Jubilee Audience in St. Peter’s Square for Rotary members, a conference aiming to step up collaboration between organizations that advocate and work for the rights of refugees took place in the Vatican. The conference entitled “Helping Refugees to Start Over” focused on the growing need to provide refugees and migrants – especially children and young people – with education and skills that will enable them to form a new life and contribute to their communities. During the discussion members of Rotary International, of the Jesuit Refugee Service and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and World Food Programme agreed that refugees worldwide should be recognized the fundamental right of access to education programmes as valid tools for social inclusion and human development.During the Jubilee Audience itself, attended by nearly 9.000 Rotary members from across the globe, Pope Francis enco...

(Vatican Radio) On the eve of a special Jubilee Audience in St. Peter’s Square for Rotary members, a conference aiming to step up collaboration between organizations that advocate and work for the rights of refugees took place in the Vatican. 

The conference entitled “Helping Refugees to Start Over” focused on the growing need to provide refugees and migrants – especially children and young people – with education and skills that will enable them to form a new life and contribute to their communities. 

During the discussion members of Rotary International, of the Jesuit Refugee Service and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and World Food Programme agreed that refugees worldwide should be recognized the fundamental right of access to education programmes as valid tools for social inclusion and human development.

During the Jubilee Audience itself, attended by nearly 9.000 Rotary members from across the globe, Pope Francis encouraged Rotarians to continue in their commitments for a more peaceful and compassionate world.

Speaking to Rotary President Ravi Ravindran, the Pope emphasized the importance of vaccinations against polio and urged the organization to continue to spearhead its successful campaign thanks to which the disease is close to being eradicated. 

One of the participants both in the Audience and in the panel discussion on “Helping Refugees to Start Over” was John Hewco, General Secretary of Rotary International. He spoke to Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni about the humanitarian work of the global Rotary network and said the current migrant and refugee crisis in Europe has become an important topic for Rotarians.  

Listen to the interview:

Rotary, Hewco explains, is an extraordinary international organization that brings together community leaders from around the world to discuss some of the significant challenges that the world is facing and to take concrete action, both locally and internationally.

He says there are 1.2 million Rotarians around the world: “70% of them are now outside of North America, and there is a very strong Rotary presence here in Italy”.

Hewco points out that with the refugee and migrant crisis unfolding in Europe, it’s become an important topic for Rotarians to address: “to help these people as they are coming in, to give them job training and to work with local communities to solve the issue.”

He explains that the point he was making in his intervention during the conference is that it is not only a question of alleviating the refugees’ immediate needs like food, shelter etc. but also to provide them with the skills they are going to need to integrate into society.

Pointing out  that many migrants and refugees are in fact professionals - highly-skilled people who represent a terrific opportunity for society, he says it makes absolute sense for all involved to highlight their value and allow them to make a contribution.    

“So if we can harness these skills, and use those skills to integrate them into society that will go a long way to providing a sustainable, long-term solution to the issue” he said.

Referring to the fact that Pope Francis follows Popes Paul VI and John Paul II in connecting with Rotary to encourage their support of a more peaceful and compassionate world, Hewco says Rotarians have always responded extremely forcefully to this challenge.

“That’s what Rotary is all about: it’s about community leaders coming together in their communities to tackle both local and international challenges. Rotarians in Italy, in Germany, throughout the world have stepped up and have provided shelter, food, long-term training to be able to provide sustainable solutions to refugees throughout the world” he said.

And he says the Rotarian response to the challenges posed by the Pope has always been: “Your Holiness, you’ve challenged us and we’re going to deliver on your challenge to help address this issue throughout the world.”

Regarding a possible collaboration with JRS and its work to provide education, training and vocational skills to vulnerable refugees, Hewco says this is an extremely important mission that needs to be addressed globally “so partnership is absolutely critical”.

“As an example our signature corporate initiative is the eradication of polio and we are very close to eradicating the disease, something we were able to do because we were able to partner with organizations such as Unicef, WHO, the Center for Disease Control, the Gates Foundation” he said.

Similarly, in the refugee context - Hewco concludes voicing his hope that a partnership with JRS may be implemented -  partnership allows each party to bring its  skills and acumen to the table: “so we are able to address the issue successfully”. 

 

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