Jesuit Refugee Service Cambodia has released a video about its mission of accompaniment. To accompany means “To be a friend, to walk alongside, to share stories, to learn from one another, to care,” it explains.
JRS Cambodia accompanies two main groups of marginalised people – refugee and asylum seekers, and survivors of landmines and cluster bombs. Through the Metta Karuna Reflection Centre in Siem Reap, it accompanies groups such as refugees, monks and artists from Myanmar, people evicted from their land, students who want to learn about Cambodia and forced displacement, and children to teach them about peace.
“For us to Accompany means to know each one by name” – and the staff at JRS Cambodia make it a point to develop relationships with the people they serve through their programmes.
As a staff member at the reflection centre said, “”I sit down and listen to their stories. Sometimes I cry with them; sometimes I laugh with them. Sometimes I even tell them my story. And we are happy together, and we are sad together.”
It is JRS Cambodia’s hope that one day, those they help will be empowered to have their voices heard, and hence their mission to” treat every person with dignity [and hospitality] so that justice may flower.”
Watch the JRS Cambodia Accompaniment video 2014 below.
For more information about JRS Cambodia, visit jrscambodia.org.
For more information about the Metta Karuna Reflection Centre, click here.