Stiftung Jesuiten weltweit

Switzerland

From kindergarten to online university

Stiftung Jesuiten weltweit (formerly known as Jesuitenmission), is a Swiss Jesuit foundation that has been operational since the early 1940s.

Our focus is on education, with 48 per cent of our funds spent on building schools and dormitories, furnishing classrooms, producing learning materials, and providing scholarships and support for higher education in refugee camps.

We also fund a wide range of other pastoral and development activities. In 2015 we supported 155 projects in over 40 countries, prioritising India, Syria, North Iraq and the countries of Central and Eastern Africa.

Our response to humanitarian emergencies is always coordinated through the Xavier Network, most recently for the refugee crisis in Europe. Another branch of our work is Jesuit Refugee Services Switzerland, which provides direct assistance to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and coordinates with other civil society organisations.

Since 2015 we have arranged overseas placements for the “civilian service” programme, an alternative to Switzerland’s mandatory military service, and in addition we run a joint overseas volunteering programme for around 30 young adults each year with our sister Jesuit missions in Germany and Austria. These year-long placements have included a farm worker taking over tasks on a microcredit project in Argentina and a high-school graduate teaching computer skills in a rural school in Tamil Nadu.

Banner photo: BASEL: Demonstrators protest against the closure of a church shelter for refugees. Photo: Christoph Albrecht