St Ignatius of Loyola writes in his letter to the Jesuits at Padua (1547): Friendship with the poor makes us friends of the eternal King. Fr Adolfo Nicolas underlined in Chicago (Oct 2013) that according to ‘the Ignatian concept of service, growth leads to transformation’. He added that the ultimate objective is individual formation and ‘through individuals, the transformation of the society’. Again in Mexico City (Apr 2010), he called for networking Jesuit Higher Education to shape ‘the future for a humane, just, and sustainable globe’.  This needs to evolve as the ‘proyecto social’ based on the need to ‘re-imagine and re-organize ourselves’ for a new globalization (of liberation, peace, and harmony). Further, GC 36 portrays the Jesuit education ‘should help form men and women committed to reconciliation and able to confront obstacles to reconciliation and solutions.’ Further it should be strengthened ‘to help in the transformation of our cultures and societies’ (D1/34).

Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL) not only echoes the vision of Jesuit empowering education but also brings in ‘learning together to transform the world’, starting with the poor and the marginalized. The key to reform the society is empowering education that gives hope even amidst the hopeless situation; and the courage to break through the dominating and oppressing fetters of suppression and discrimination for liberation and dignity. JWL’s higher education programs bridge the gap between the hope of the marginalized and the under-served to opportunities in life and society.

In 2010s a few faculty members from the US Jesuit Universities, under the leadership of Mary McFarland, came together and contemplated what could be done for the marginalized. The outcome is Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins (JC:HEM) with the focus on the refugees. JC:HEM joined hands with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and started offering education that would empower the refugees. This began as a pilot program in the refugee camps of Kakuma (Kenya) and Dzaleka (Malawi) and later extended to learning centers in marginalized communities in Jordon, Chad, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and North Iraq. The center of operation had been mainly from the USA.

In 2016, in order to realize the global nature of service, JC:HEM was renamed as Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL, often pronounced as JeWeL) with two registered societies (JWL-USA and JWL) with the headquarters in Geneva.

With the vision of ‘Learning Together to Transform the World’, JWL’s mission is to provide ‘tertiary learning to people and communities at the margins of societies – be it through poverty, location, lack of opportunity, conflict or forced displacement.’ The formative education is Ignatian in pedagogy with embedded social service component.

The mission of the Founding Fathers of the society, namely ‘Care of the Soul’ eventually evolved as the holistic development of the person. Similarly, the mission of JWL, though started with the JRS, began to spread wings. JWL realized that there are others who are impoverished as the victims of social, religious, and political discrimination, such as internally displaced, rural poor in developing countries, indigenous people, Tribals, and the Dalits. JWL wanted to embrace them as well into the fold of empowering education. And today the education program is offered to these disadvantaged and underserved and wherever there is greater need.

JWL follows the Ignatian pedagogy, namely education in the context of the marginalized and based on the experience with them. The educational program designed is embedded with social values. It is the bottom-up model for academic endeavours: education, though academic information, should form the people at the periphery (who are at the bottom of the social pyramid) and empower them to transform the society. The major components of this model are:

1. Creating the pedagogy of critical thinking with value-embedded curriculum that results in capacity building to lead others;
2. Learning together builds up global citizenship with inter-cultural and inter-religious experience (that we belong) to an extended global society; and
3. Globally the education is of high quality but at an affordable cost for the learner.

Ultimately JWL program gives the best to the least – those at the bottom of the social structure – in the society, in order to make them the central power of leadership; and to create a new world order of harmony and peace. Thus the leadership formation given to those at the bottom of the social pyramid permeates upward as social transformation.

JWL is a service provider, operating like the Star Alliance (of airlines) finding academic resources and putting them in touch with the needy. In this way, networking of the Jesuit Universities the world over with the needy in unknown corners of the globe is effectively carried out.

With the ever increasing centers of learning globally and with the need for new courses hybrid interfacing model is developed as the learning pathway starting with Global English Language program (with Cambridge Linguaskill exams) as the prerequisite and then launching of 3-credit professional courses (such as social work, community health, finance etc) which would be eventually incorporated into 45-credit diploma courses (nearly 30 in number). Except the English program, other programs are offered as blended program, with online teacher as well as onsite tutor. JWL is gearing up and exploring the possibility of moving into Associate Degree, and then with Bachelor and Master Degrees. JWL does not want to draw any line or limit, in the spirit of magis, for the learning capacity of the students.

With collaboration and networking with other institutions of higher learning, preferably with the Jesuit universities, not only new courses are designed and developed but also the necessary certificates/ diplomas/ degrees would be issued. The international Subject Matter Experts as well as the Curriculum Over Sight Committee ensures the quality of the courses. The course on Child Protection (Gregorian University) is offered through JWL; Regis University is offering the diploma for JWL diploma program. The course on Peace Leader (from Hekima College, Kenya), Sustainable Environment (from Newman Institute, Sweden and Xavier University, India) etc would soon become operative. Courses on Hygiene and Public Health, Youth Sports etc are getting ready to be rolled out.

JWL has initiated research as well. The research, while studying the impact of JWL program on individuals as well as on the society, would serve as a feedback loop for the future direction in the global service of empowering the marginalized to become the social leaders leading the society.

JWL creates an atmosphere for global learning through intercultural interaction. The students have the opportunity to work with students in another country with another culture, especially for their assignments.

At present JWL has Community Learning Centers in Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Central African Republic), in Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Myanmar), in the USA (New York), in the Middle East and Central Asia (North Iraq, Afghanistan). In the near future, JWL is exploring the possibility of learning centers in the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti). JWL is ready to go where there is greater need for the service of the needy. In 2017, 3,050 students studied with the help of JWL and the projected number by 2020 would be 10,000.

In this global mission, JWL enjoys the networking with institutions of higher learning, especially with the Jesuit Universities. Regis University, Georgetown University, Gonzaga University, Creighton University, University of Utah, South New Hampshire University etc in the USA; Newman Institute (Sweden), the Munich School of Philosophy (Germany) etc in Europe; Hekima College (Kenya), Arrupe College (Zimbabwe), CERAP (Ivory Coast) etc in Africa; and Xavier University (Bhubaneswar) in India are some of the institutions of higher learning JWL is working with. Some of these institutions are certificate-issuing institutions as well.

Right from its inception, JWL sought the refugees and the marginalized, especially the youth, and offered education, education that would make them entrepreneurs and at the same time social leaders to transform the society. Service to society is an in-built component of JWL educational program. The interconnectedness concept of Ubuntu (Africa) is based on the philosophy of ‘everyone is part of the whole’ and the social awareness that ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’ could inspire the youth that they are part of something larger and more powerful. This concept could kindle one’s social responsibility of caring, sharing, and being in harmony. At the same time the collective concept of being empowered will arouse in all the sleeping lion of courage and confidence within the poor and the marginalized so that they could get educated, organized, and agitate for their rightful rights and powers in the society and at the same time they could scale the summit of prosperity. JWL is looking for academic collaboration and funding partnership in realizing the dream of reaching out the needy all over the globe with empowering education.

Charles, who fled Democratic Republic of Congo after his father was assassinated, says: The only thing my father left me with was this advice before he died – ‘I don’t have anything to give you, but I ask you to continue with your education. Education will be your mother and father when I am no longer there.’  Charles is now in Dzaleka Camp in Malawi diligently following the advice of his father. There are many more such people JWL looks forward to serve.  Cf Jesuit Year Book 2019