JWL provides refugees and other marginalised communities with higher education opportunities that are not only high quality, but also relevant to learners’ contexts and goals. In order to meet the various needs and goals of our students, we continue to develop a stackable learning path which includes shorter (6 months) certified/accredited programmes to provide learners with professional knowledge, skills and competencies that may facilitate access to professional opportunities or further tertiary studies. In 2020, JWL and partner universities launched the Ecotourism and Creative Writing and Design programmes.
The Creative Writing and Design programme (accredited by St Joseph’s University in Bangalore, India), provides an introduction to creative writing, graphic and web design that could open doors to professional opportunities (especially in an increasingly digitalised world) and empower persons to express and share their own experiences or those of others – a megaphone to raise awareness, comfort or even inspire.
I love to write and I believe words are very strong […]. I wanted to learn something new which was web design and graphic design so that it could help me to at least create my own blog and share my thoughts, poems and stories there, secondly to improve my writing skills and write in a better way and to know more writers and learn from them and share my poems and stories with them.
– Shafiqa, Creative Writing
At the community learning centre in Delhi, India, run in cooperation with the Jesuit Refugee Service, Shafiqa wants to become a writer, sharing her poems and stories with others, and hopes to study English Literature. A refugee herself, she would like to impart her knowledge and support children and refugee youths in any way she can.
Accredited by the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Sant Ignasi (HTSI), Spain, the Ecotourism programme addresses the needs of communities all over the world to promote responsible tourism that allows the generation of income, while preserving the community's fragile resources. Leaners are introduced to concepts and principles of tourism and ecotourism, and the necessary knowledge and practices to design and promote sustainable tourism-related products and services.
With the support of the Xavier Learning Community in Chiang Rai, Thailand, Oayporn is quenching her thirst for knowledge and skills in the field of ecotourism. Originally from Chiang Mai, Oayporn belongs to the Karen ethnic group. Her parents are farmers in a small village surrounded by mountains and forest, which she hopes to return to one day and improve the lives of members of her community – through ecotourism.
I hope that running the business in my community will be a good opportunity for me and the villagers to develop our village as a sustainable tourist destination. I hope this can also improve the well-being of the people in my community by creating jobs for them to increase their income, while promoting and preserving the old traditional culture and environment. The young generations can also come back to cultivate their own community while taking care of their parents.
– Oayporn, Ecotourism student, Thailand