On May 3, Instituto São João de Brito held the blessing ceremony of its new campus. The milestone was the first of several this year for Projeto Educação Jesuíta, the Jesuit education project in Timor-Leste. In October, the new chapel, funded mostly by Singaporean friends, will be blessed, and in December, the first batch of students who entered Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola in its first year will graduate.
“We are grateful that we have this project,” said Fr Joaquim Sarmento SJ, Superior of the Jesuits in Timor-Leste. “We would like to thank all who have made this possible, starting with Fr Mark Raper SJ, our former Superior, who pushed this project ahead and, through him, all our friends, donors, partners, parents of our students, especially the Jesuit community, our missionaries in bringing this project forward.”
Projeto Educação Jesuíta started in 2012 and comprises two institutions: Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL), a secondary school, which opened in 2013, and Instituto São João de Brito (ISJB), a teacher education institute, which had its first intake of student teachers in January 2016.
Located in Kasait in the rural part of Ulmera, the education project has become a wellspring for other projects in the community. The health clinic, which is meant primarily to serve the needs of the students and teachers, also helps to promote a healthy lifestyle among the villagers. The water project of Jesuit Social Services provides the residents with much needed potable water. “We try to create synergy and collaboration in our projects through the school,” said Fr Sarmento.
As the education project inches closer to its scheduled completion in 2020, Fr Sarmento emphasised that the project is not the end but a means to an end. “It’s not that we have a school, but that we touch human hearts,” he said.
Ultimately, what the Jesuits want is to contribute to the national transformation of Timor-Leste, a young sovereign state that gained independence only in 2002.
“Our dream is to contribute to the formation of young people, well prepared intellectually, with good character, good Christians who can contribute to the church, to the country properly because this is what the country needs and this is what we can offer, and we are happy to do this as a mission to help the country,” said Fr Sarmento who is the first local Jesuit superior for the Jesuit Region of Timor-Leste.
“We have a significant leadership crisis in the country – social as well as in the church. If our students can be good leaders, that is one of our dreams.”
Given the small number of local Jesuits, it is obvious that collaboration is key to realising this dream. The education project was born out of collaboration, and it is collaboration that will carry it through.
“This project is a project of so many people who feel the joy of sharing their life, their time, their capacity, and we are coming now to some initial results,” said Fr Sarmento.
“We are assured that our long tradition of doing schools, our spirituality, our brotherhood in the Society, the opportunities and the network that we are able to establish with friends inside and outside the country – all of this will help us contribute to forming good leaders for the country.”
For Fr Sarmento, there is a great sense of fullness.
“We like to celebrate our companionship. Those who do the fundraising, those who do the technical work, all the academic preparations, the recruitment, these are all done behind the scenes but they all contributed.”
“Actually,” he said, pausing in retrospect, “in Jesuit life, since the beginning, St Ignatius always worked in collaboration with those who shared his mission. We are just continuing the tradition”.