Bringing Mandazi to Market in Kenya

TPAE Initiative

A group of single mothers in Western Kenya access training and resources from the Jesuit Hakimani Centre to create employment for themselves and promote healthy eating by starting a group that makes bread and cakes from traditional crops.

Sena Women’s Group

Sena Women’s Group is a shining example of a simple idea that was developed through training by the Jesuit Hakimani Centre. It has transformed the lives of the women in the Bungoma region of western Kenya who comprise the group and their families, as well as the wider community of those who were indirectly involved in the project. Most of the women in the group are single mothers and are therefore almost fully dependent on it for their income. Thanks to its success, they are now able to afford to cover their basic needs and to pay school fees and provide for their children.

An Oasis at the Margins

kakuma camp women

“Women and girls are Africa’s greatest untapped resource, and it is they, not diamonds or oil and minerals, that will be the foundation for solid, sustainable and equitable progress”. - Joaquim Chissano

Kakuma Refugee Camp is located in the northwestern region of Kenya. It was established in 1992 to host unaccompanied minors who had fled the war in Sudan and came walking from camps in Ethiopia. Today, the camp accommodates more than 185,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers from countries all over Sub-Saharan Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

‘Fīor Eireannach gan dabht’

joe mallin

‘Fīor Eireannach gan dabht’

Joe Mallin SJ, son of Commdt. Michael Mallin, who was executed for his role in the Easter Rising, died peacefully and fittingly, on Easter Sunday morning, 1 April 2018, in Hong Kong. He was 104 years old.

He was born in 1914, just two years before his father was executed by firing squad, leaving a wife and five small children. One of Fr Joseph’s brothers, Seán, also became a Jesuit priest, and his sister Úna entered the Loreto order in 1925. She was sent to a convent in Spain, where she spent the rest of her life. Commdt. Mallin would have been proud of his children. In his last letter he wrote: : “Úna, my little one, be a nun; Joseph, my little man, be a priest if you can …” Fr Joe joined the Jesuits, and in 1948 he went to Hong Kong and China as part of the Irish Jesuit mission to China. He spent over 70 years of his life there.

Irish Men Behind the Missions: Fr Joe Mallin SJ RIP

jmallin 01

Fr Joe Mallin SJ passed on to his final reward on the 1st April 2018 in Hong Kong. At 104, Fr Mallin was the oldest living Irish Jesuit missionary, and was also the only surviving child of a leader of the 1916 Rising.

The funeral Mass for Fr Joe will be held at 10.00 AM on Saturday, 14 April at St Ignatius Chapel, Wah Yan College, Kowloon and will be presided over by the Bishop of Hong Kong. Burial will take place afterwards in St Michael's Cemetery, Happy Valley, Hong Kong.

A memorial mass will be held in Dublin for Fr Mallin, after his funeral. We will share details of time, date and location in the coming days.

Spirit of Success in South Sudan

South Sudan JRS
Sarah Phillip attends the JRS Adult Literacy Programme in Maban, South Sudan

Sarah and Rahab are inspirational young women who are striving to complete their education in the hostile climate of war-torn South Sudan. With the help of programmes run by the Jesuit Refugee Service in the northeastern region of Maban, they are learning English to help them to pass their exams, so they can provide for themselves and help their families and communities.

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