In April 2022, the Reconciliation with Creation network of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific initiated a search for young people, who with their team or group, are making a significant contribution to their community through projects that respond to the urgent ecological crises of our time. The network intended to provide modest grants to support these projects and promote their continuation. With their passion and commitment, these young people serve as a source of hope for others. Thus, Fr Gabby Lamug-Nañawa SJ, network coordinator, dubbed them “Creators of Hope”. The project was born out of “the belief in the importance of hope in the world today, especially hope generated by the youth and for the youth,” as Fr Nañawa put it. This theme is especially poignant given the global pandemic of the past two years.
By mid-year, five projects were selected from across Asia Pacific. These ranged from a small farm in Chiang Mai, Thailand to an ecological boarding school in West Java, Indonesia, a small village in Myanmar, and the islands of the Philippines. It was important to find young people with different backgrounds, different faiths, and different affiliations but all dedicated to helping the environment, their communities, and each other. Gender, race, religion, cultural identity, sexual orientation, or disability were not determining factors for selection. The only requirement was that the applicants were engaged in an ecological service project that addresses current environmental issues and benefits the lives of a community, especially the poor, while also demonstrating aspects of Pope Francis’ teachings in Laudato sí. Each project was chosen for its positive impact or contribution to the community and values, such as compassion, generosity, creativity, love for creation, and service for the poor, that are apparent in the project and among those involved.
Amongst the peaceful fields in Garut, West Java is the Pesantren Ekologi Ath-thariq, a boarding school founded in 2008 by Nissa Wargadipura. Her son, Akhfaa Nazhat Al Wafaa, is one of the grantees of the project. Growing up on the farm, Akhfaa learned to recognise various types of dragonflies, butterflies, birds and medicinal plants, and to distinguish between female and male animals within the area. He also became adept at creating seed art. Along with other student boarders and his family, Akhfaa lives in the Pesantren, where they teach principles from the Qur’an together with the farming practices of agroecology. The 19-year-old electrical engineering student at the University of Garut says, “Practicing agroecology ensures the fertility of the soil and results in a good harvest.” In between times of prayer, study, and studying at the university, all the boarders participate in the work done on the different zones of the one-hectare farm. There they learn to live closely attuned to nature, respecting the cycles of the plants, the interdependence with the animals, the healing properties of specific leaves and flowers, the flow of energy from the sun, wind, and rain. Akhfaa has taken these lived-principles as his own and sees their potential in responding to the climate and ecological crises.
Meantime, in Panay, Philippines, a young man is using creativity in storytelling to help with local conservation. Jann Vinze Barcinal, 21, is the founder and chairperson of Dulungan Youth, an organisation of young people involved in conservation. Their project, Stories of Hope in Community Conservation, is implementing a multi-part writing and storytelling workshop for the youth of Culasi, Antique on the eastern side of Panay island. The stories will focus on the indigenous communities of the Central Panay Mountain Range, a key biodiversity area, and their actions to protect and conserve those lands, which are crucial since only 8 per cent of the original forest area remains. The stories will be told through written features and photographs to be published on a website and displayed in a public exhibition in collaboration with the local government. Jann Vinze and his team are passionate about telling conservation stories in a dynamic way. By capacitating the youth, they believe in the power of stories for creating awareness, inspiring action, and building a sense of urgency around protecting other species on the planet.
Just across the island of Panay and the Guimaras Straight is Bacolod City on the northwestern side of the island of Negros. There, 22-year-old Desirie Tiberio is part of a group of scholarship students supported by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. Driven by their own initiative, the group started rehabilitating an abandoned park in the City Heights Subdivision during the pandemic. The project began with the mothers of the community working together to clean up the plastic waste in the park. Once pandemic health restrictions were relaxed, the youth joined the effort and the project expanded to include composting. Eventually, Desirie applied for the Creators of Hope grant to build a Spiritual Activity Center in the park, as well as a nursery and a vegetable garden. With the mothers, students, and Good Samaritan sisters pitching in, the project is a true reflection of the Filipino spirit of bayanihan where members of a community work together for the common good.
In the northern Thailand province of Chiang Mai, Weera “Air” Maneerattanawongsiri, 26, works at the Emmaus Centre, a farm and community centre started by Vilaiwan “Kep” Phoktavi. Air, who is originally from a northern tribe, was a student at Xavier Learning Community, a Jesuit-run educational institution in Chiang Rai. During the pandemic, Air made a major change from studying tourism to returning to his agricultural roots. At Emmaus, Air tends a vegetable patch among other things, but his focus is gathering indigenous heirloom seeds from the different tribal areas of the north. He is concerned that the rich diversity of indigenous vegetables will eventually be lost and forgotten. “Nowadays, we are losing many plant species,” he said. “This means we are losing our food. If we don’t do something about it, we will lose it forever.” He travels around the area, talking to local communities and learning about these seeds. With a growing collection carefully stored in a small refrigerator on the farm, Air wants to plant, propagate, and share these seeds with other farmers—before they are overtaken by the few varieties of cash crops that big corporations push.
Finally, coming from Kyun Daw village, Kachin State, Myanmar is Yaw Yin Thang. He is a catechist of their local Catholic parish. Thang, 33, is also a home-based farmer with a small lychee and lemon garden, and a few chickens. The tension brought by the war had driven many people from his community to flee to the Nan Hlaing camp, which has recently closed. The returning villagers were unsure of what to do next, and Thang saw this as an opportunity to raise more chickens so more young people could work with him. With so many young people in Myanmar leaving to find work, Thang hopes his chicken-raising project will encourage some to stay in Myanmar. Aside from food security, he hopes the simple project will also bring a sense of stability and well-being to their village.
Each of these projects, regardless of its size and scope, represents acts of hope. “Hope cannot appear out of nothing. It is essentially a grace, a gift from God,” said Fr Nañawa. “But one thing we can do is to put into action an idea or an inspiration, however imperfect it may be. And through action, by the grace of God, hope can be created, within ourselves and also within others.”
This article was first published in The Jesuits in Asia Pacific 2023 magazine.