1. Seeds of Love Lent 2017 Hello and welcome to week 5 of Lent!
Jesuit Missions is inviting you this Lent to focus on FOOD. We are going to be showing you different food, or livelihoods* projects that Jesuit Missions supports all around the world. We hope it will be an opportunity for you to learn more about what JM does around the world, and perhaps even find a cause to commit to/support this Lent!
* Livelihoods are the things needed for a means of living. These things, or assets, could be “tangible, such as food stores and cash savings, as well as trees, land, livestock, tools, and other resources. Assets may also be intangible such as claims one can make for food, work, and assistance as well as access to materials, information, education, health services and employment opportunities.” – United National International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)
During this period, we will be praying, encouraging you to think about food (or fasting) and encouraging alms giving (or fundraising).

2. “…The Lord says to his people, “When the time comes to save you, I will show you favour and answer your cries for help…They will be like sheep that graze on the hills; they will never be hungry or thirsty…”
Let’s begin this morning’s presentation by reading and praying over the words in this scripture passage.
What do you think Isaiah is trying to reveal to us about God here? Here are some reflection questions:
Think back to the projects (Zimbabwe food gardens, Zambia’s Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre) you heard about in the last few weeks. What issues can you remember affect the people in those projects?
How do you think God has answered the cries of the people there?
Why do you think Isaiah using the simile of the sheep grazing in the hills?
These questions are suggested only. As the presentations are designed to be given at assemblies (lasting no longer than 15/20 minutes), the questions should be more of an internal dialogue (similar to an Examen) than a spoken discussion. If there is time however, they can be discussed aloud.
- Isaiah 49:8-15

3. Damascus food kitchen: Syria
Over the next two weeks we’ll be hearing about field kitchens in Damascus, Syria.
In 2015, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) responded to a nutritional need in rural Damascus.
They provided hot meals to 5,000 affected persons daily.
Picture – this picture is showing the countryside of Damascus in a place called Rif Dimashq. You can see it is beautiful and picturesque, and was a one time a place where Syrian families would go to enjoy time in the countryside together.

4. The conflict in Syria has frequently been in the news since it began in 2011.
It started out as a peaceful rebellion against the government, and has now evolved into a very complicated globalised conflict.
The above graphic (taken from OCHA* Syria) shows that over 11 million Syrians have been forcibly displaced from their homes : so far totalling 6.5 million IDPs** and 4.1 million refugees to neighbouring countries.
* United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
**internally displaced persons – people who have not crossed a border to find safety. Unlike refugees, they are on the run at home.

5. Here is a map of the conflict*.
The field kitchens that JM funded are in Damascus in the south. The Jesuits have also been providing assistance in Homs and Aleppo – through opening schools and enable people to work.
*Compiled by the BBC

6. Access to food, energy and water is used as a weapon of war
Access to food, energy and water is used as a weapon of war. This is strategic and deliberate - aimed at worsening the suffering.
The main priorities of aid workers are treating and evacuating the wounded, providing food aid, water, sanitation and hygiene, health and shelter.
The JRS served 5,000 daily meals in a field kitchen in Sahnaya. In this region there are 4,250 IDPs and 750 affected members of the local community in rural Damascus. 5,000 persons benefitted from daily meals, 6 days a week, 1 meal a day.
The meals contained traditional Syrian homemade dishes.

7. For 12 months, the project fed 5,274 persons a day
For 12 months, the project fed 5,274 persons a day. The meal was a 389 g 1,400 calorie meal, low in salt content and high in proteins, also containing carbohydrates, fat, vegetables and fruit.

8. Children and the elderly are most at risk in this conflict
Children and the elderly are most at risk in this conflict. About 40% of those being helped by this food bank are under the age of 18.
This young boy is awaiting food with his family’s distribution card in hand.

9. Picture – the arrival of food at one of the distribution points.
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT:
Here are some reflection questions you can pose to students:
1) What’s different about this situation compared to the previous projects you heard about (Zimbabwe and Zambia)?
2) What role does food play here?
If you would like to guide students, encourage them to consider:
This is a conflict situation
Food here is addressing an emergency
Food here is ready made; aimed at nutrition
Food here is limited to one meal a day
The people here lack the freedom to grow food themselves/choose their meals
Restriction to food is deliberate (a weapon of war)

10. All the time: be with us, accompany us, help us, save us.
We cry to you dear Lord
All the time: be with us, accompany us, help us, save us.
We know that you are always there; but very often, for absolutely no reason, doubt gets the better of us!
Thank you for the assurance that you will never let us down.
Above all Lord, we humbly ask you to give us your grace and strength to be with, to accompany, to help those who hunger and thirst in this world!
Amen!
Let us conclude this week’s presentation by joining together in prayer (prayer provided by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ from the JRS).
Try to focus on all of the projects you have heard so far. How they are different and how they are the same.
As we remember that this is Lent, can we picture the face of Jesus in the faces of these people?
Will this have an impact on the way you eat your food today?

11. © Copyright Jesuit Missions 2017
Text by Samantha Aidoo and Cedric Prakash SJ.
All photos were taken in Damascus, Syria by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
Users are welcome to modify the material to fit their needs.
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