Save the Date - 7th Biennial JUHAN Conference “Humanitarian Action and Climate Change”

Save the Date: 7th Biennial JUHAN Conference “Humanitarian Action and Climate Change!”

The Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN) is excited to announce its 7th Biennial JUHAN Student Leadership Conference, “Humanitarian Action and Climate Change.” The conference will be held virtually on the evenings of Thursday, September 30 and Friday, October 1 and the morning of Saturday, October 2 and will bring together students from across our Jesuit network of colleges and universities.  The planning committee consists of representatives from Fairfield University, College of the Holy Cross, Fordham University, University of Scranton, John Carroll University and Loyola University Chicago.  Please let us know if you have any suggestion for topics/speakers or if you are interested in learning more. (Contact:  Julie Mughal, Fairfield University – jmughal@fairfield.edu) 

Using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to frame our discussions and with modules and facilitation provided by the youth-led sustainable development organization Foundations for Environmental Stewardship (FES), the conference will address climate change as a seminal issue of our time and how it intersects with the field of humanitarian action.  The 3-day agenda will include a variety of guest speakers, student skill-building modules, and campus-based action planning sessions.  

The conference will include a special collaboration with the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Fr. Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam SDB, Coordinator, Ecology sector, who describes the Laudato Si’ Action Platform as a single global framework that unites our distinct experiences and perspectives under one umbrella, promoting local and sectoral initiatives to the fullest possible extent and developing each member of the human family to lead in his or her own way.  Students who attend the conference will learn how to plan initiatives on their home campuses using Laudato Si’ and the forthcoming 7-Year Plan as a framework for action.

 In April, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock noted, “Climate change is already one of the top drivers of humanitarian need and human suffering, alongside conflict and disease, both of which, by the way, are exacerbated by climate change.”  The call to action is clear.  

 We look forward to hearing from you and hoping that you and your students will join us!  

The Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN) was launched in 2006 by Fairfield, Fordham and Georgetown Universities as a way to raise awareness on Jesuit campuses of the meaning of humanitarian response and its implications for the Jesuit ideology of “men and women for others,” as well as to jointly address the humanitarian needs of those who are suffering. JUHAN sponsors a biennial student leadership conference on different Jesuit campuses. While this upcoming conference will be virtual, JUHAN thanks the campuses that have hosted previous conferences: Georgetown University, Fordham University, Fairfield University, College of the Holy Cross, John Carroll University, and the University of Scranton.