After re-establishing itself in Dili, East Timor in October 2007, the Jesuit Refugee Service embarked on a journey to provide emergency community assistance to the internally displaced people (IDP) in Dili. It was decided to start small due to the instability of the political and security situation. JRS selected six camps for the displaced people hosted by the religious congregations/Catholic Church, namely, the Fransiscan’s Convent in Taibesi, the San Jose Jesuit High School, Canossian’ s Convent and the Minor Seminary all in Balide, and the Canossian’s and Salesian’s School in Comoro. The focus of the work is a direct contact and service to the displaced people especially through accompaniment (being with/presence) since most of the basic necessities are already being provided by other agencies. This includes capacity building of the camp community especially the camp managers of the displaced people, providing support to the local Catholic Church/religious communities hosting IDP, and increasing awareness of the concerns/rights of the displaced people among the relevant Catholic Church/religious communities and other agencies for appropriate action. Regular visits to the camps has been an integral part of accompaniment – being with them and listening to them – as well as monitoring the distribution of logistics, tents and other assistance provided for the IDP. The visits initiated and nurtured communication together in the search for a durable solution for the displaced people either to return or to be relocated.
At the outset, a working relationship was initiated with the Provedoria Direitus Humanus e Justicia (PDHJ), Caritas Australia and UNDP to organize and hold a series of capacity building workshop on protection issues. These series of workshops were for the staff of various NGOs (including the PDHJ and Caritas Australia), the training of trainers (ToT) for some of the PDHJ staff, and protection training for camp managers of the IDP (who are themselves the displaced people).
Fr Bambang Sipayung, seconded from JRS Indonesia for a period of six months (October 2007-April 2008), is the Project Director of JRS-TLS. He enlisted a total of 4 young and able staff to assist him in various aspects of the project in Dili. Part of the work involved time-consuming administrative matters including registration in TLS, finance issues, writing reports and proposals, personnel issues, etc. Fr Bernard Hyacinth Arputhasamy, Regional Director of JRS Asia Pacific, visited Dili on February 5 –16 to assist Fr Bambang with the progress of the project including looking for a replacement of Fr Bambang (difficult to be replaced!)
For 2008, JRS is now initiating a concrete response to help one camp population (St. Elisabeth, Taibesi), with 7 families, who have expressed the desire to return or relocate. This process will involve negotiations with the camp population and the host community receiving them, with various leaders, on issues of land and housing ownership, etc. It is important to start creating a conducive atmosphere to return/relocate. To ensure peaceful progress, it will also be necessary to engage non-/government agencies in order to coordinate and monitor the work.
Amidst the complexities and challenges, one can lose courage and hope to begin. But it is possible if we start with small things that have concrete and clear objectives. In itself this small venture would bring about its own challenges and it is still worth the try to start again.
For other updates on the work of JRS in East Timor, please visit www.jrasp.org for East Timor Newsletter.