The Foundation for Justice-Bancaja Award recognizes the trajectory and constant dedication of those people or organizations that stand out for their contribution to the promotion and defense of human rights. The Jury, chaired by the winners of the last edition - the Sisters of Charity -, and made up of the presidents of the Foundation for Justice and the Bancaja Foundation, as well as winners from other years such as Vicente Berenguer and the president of the Court of the Waters of Valencia and representatives of public institutions, Minister of Health, Social Policy and Equality and Minister of Solidarity and Citizenship, has had an arduous task to choose one of the 15 candidates presented.
This year's winner, Jesuit Refugee Service, working since 1980 to offer assistance to forcibly displaced people worldwide. Its motto is "accompany, serve and defend" and in accordance with this it offers attention at all levels to this group - health, educational, religious, social. The group it works with includes all those who have been separated from their homes by conflict, humanitarian disasters or human rights violations. Its operations are deployed in 50 countries on all continents and benefits more than 500,000 people. In its more than 30 years of history it has been present in conflicts such as the civil wars in Central America, in the African Great Lakes and more recently in the Middle East, always defending the rights of refugees, prisoners, conflict zones and border areas from the closeness and support.
The prize, with a financial prize of 18,000 euros, was awarded for the first time in 1995 to Adolfo Suárez, and in successive editions it has recognized the work of such outstanding people and institutions as the Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega in Valencia, the Association of Victims of Terrorism, the Association for the Search for Missing Boys and Girls of El Salvador, the professor Muhammad Yunus, Mrs. Bogaletch Gebre, Father Vicente Berenguer, Doctor Pedro Cavadas and the Missionaries of Charity.
The JRS has already decided to allocate the prize money, 18,000 euros, to refugees and displaced people in the Ivory Coast and along this country's borders with Liberia and Guinea. Kenneth Gavin, deputy director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, was in charge of collecting the award at the presentation ceremony that took place in the Valencian Community.
From Entreculturas, we thank the Fundación por la Justicia-Bancaja for this award and we extend our most sincere congratulations to the Jesuit Refugee Service, an organization that, without a doubt, deserves this recognition.
Kenneth Gavin: "this award will serve to shed light on one of the most serious problems facing humanity today: refugees and displaced people"
The day before collecting the award, the Deputy Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service stated in a press conference that, currently, "we are facing the largest number of refugees in history", 15 million exiles and 27 million displaced internal.
"These are very high figures and it is easy to get lost, but what must be taken into account is that behind these data there are people who have lost everything during years and years of exile," he added.
Another of the most important problems of the moment is, as he explained, that of the so-called "urban refugees", that is, people who live in suburbs in cities such as Johannesburg, Nairobi, Pretoria or Kampala. According to Gavin, 60% of the refugees are "urban", a circumstance that makes help more difficult, since caring for people in these suburbs is very complicated.
«It has taken the UN a long time to understand this challenge and help solve it. "The JRS has met on several occasions in Geneva to make proposals to help resolve this situation," he noted.
Likewise, Gavin has indicated that North Africa is another of the "hot spots" in the world today, due to the Arab conflicts that are causing continuous migratory flows towards Europe. In this regard, he highlighted the "great concern" that there is in Rome for the Tunisian and Libyan immigrants that the island of Lampedusa receives and has indicated that they are not only working to attend to the massive arrival of immigrants but also to promote a rescue system in high seas.
Gavin highlighted the honor it is for JRS to receive this award from the Foundation for Justice and the Bancaja Foundation, as it will serve to "shed light on one of the most serious problems facing humanity today."
"A lot of material help is needed but it is also necessary to care for and accompany people and be able to tell them that God has not abandoned them," he explained.
The JRS was born in 1980 by the Basque priest Pedro Arrupe, who, moved by the refugees in the China Sea, decided to found an organization that would help these groups.
Fountain: EFE Agency