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The Kohima Region of Northeast India
The Midwest Jesuits and the Jesuits of the Kohima Region each work directly with indigenous communities. This common bond helps teacher to unite us in an apostolic partnership known as “twinning.”
The Jesuits of the Kohima Region in Northeast India work in the rural, mountainous area situated in the Himalayan hills and valleys between Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Tibet. They serve a population that is primarily indigenous and their work includes: the establishment of parishes, the operation of 10 high schools, 13 middle schools, 26 primary schools (over 13,000 students), one undergraduate college, a training center and numerous vocational and agricultural training programs. Social action projects include economic self-help cooperatives, women’s micro-finance groups; initiatives to support human and cultural rights, religious/ethnic tolerance initiatives and dialogues, ecological preservation, legal advocacy, and support for health care.
A Union of Hearts and Minds The Midwest Jesuits and the Jesuits of the Kohima Region each work directly with indigenous communities. This common bond helps teacher  to unite us in an apostolic partnership known as “twinning.” Twinning encourages solidarity and mutual sharing to help Jesuits and their colleagues advance their respective mission to accompany those on the frontiers and promote the faith that seeks justice.

Kohima: Partners in Care
By John Sealey
The Wisconsin Province Jesuits have cooperated with the Kohima Region since 2002. The Jesuits of the ethnically and geographically diverse Kohima region have worked tirelessly and faced the challenges posed by rural, mountainous terrain, a 50% literacy rate, and 240 distinct languages. As the Chicago-Detroit and Wisconsin Provinces prepare to unite, together they continue to dedicate their efforts to making a difference in the lives of those in northeast India.
Photo, at left: Paddy Gilger, SJ, finds that modern conveniences are a luxury in a region where only 30% of households have safe drinking water and electricity.

A Summer in Northeast India  In an effort to deepen the “twinning” relationship between the Wisconsin Province and the Kohima Region, scholastics, pictured left, Stephen Wolfe, SJ, R.J. Fichtinger, SJ, Luke Hansen, SJ, and Joseph Simmons, SJ lived and worked in Northeast India in the summer of 2009. Fichtinger, Simmons and Wolfe served in Jesuit parishes and schools in the rural villages of Maweit, Chidimit, and Dawagre, respectively; Hansen interned with the Jesuit-sponsored Legal Cell for Human Rights in Guwahati.
Photo at right: During the summer of 2009, four Wisconsin Province Jesuits discovered trust, sorrow and joy in Northeast India.

Their immersion experience concluded with a 10-day tour of Nagaland, home to several Jesuit institutions near India’s eastern border with Myanmar. (read more via the Wisconsin Jesuits)


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