What we do

The Basis of Our Commitment to JPIC in the Order

There are five basic sources for our Capuchin commitment to JPIC: (1) The Scriptures; (2) Catholic Social Teaching; (3) Franciscan Spirituality and Charism; (4) Constitutions and PCOs; (5) JPIC Values and Actions.
Together they all ask friars to take seriously the challenge to incarnate the values of JPIC in their daily lives

JPIC as a Dimension of our Charism and Constitutions

Our Franciscan Capuchin Charism springs from following in the footsteps of Christ, and our Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi. We live and express this charism through five constitutive elements of our Capuchin life: Prayer (contemplation), Fraternity, Minority (poverty), Ministry, and JPIC.
To understand the integration of JPIC in our charism and Constitutions, it is essential to note that justice, peace and integrity of creation are values as well as elements of our spirituality. JPIC arises from a spirituality centered on God’s plan of life for all creation, and we are invited to collaborate in this divine project. Our Constitutions note that “As sons of the ‘Universal Brother,’ Francis, we work with people throughout the world to re-establish and strengthen that harmony and further proclaim the reign of God. Thus we “become a leaven of justice, unity and peace” (Constitutions 14:5).
We demonstrate the values of JPIC in our communities, parishes, schools, soup kitchens, youth ministry, healthcare and other services. JPIC is, therefore, a way of life and mission; it is part of our DNA as Franciscans. Through it we are challenged by the great issues of humanity and committed to the cause of all people, that all might live with dignity.
JPIC perspective promotes personal and communal commitment to the transformation of the unjust social, economic and political systems which govern the world today. All Capuchin friars are encouraged to:

  • Defend human dignity against every form of oppression, injustice and violence, while analyzing the underlying causes.
  • Build peace
  • Care for and defend creation, the rights of the Earth and the sustainability of our planet.

The JPIC commission

The fundamental purpose of the JPIC Commission, both at the international and local level, is to inform, integrate and inspire friars in the ways and works of JPIC.

Peacebuilding and reconciliation

Capuchin friars are called to be instruments of peace in society. One important aspect of being instruments of peace is the practice and promotion of non-violence strategies and initiatives, following the example of St. Francis.

In societies ravaged by war, social cohesion is typically threadbare. Populations are divided along multiple fault lines, with some communities denied access to social, political, or economic power because of how they identify themselves and are identified by others. These identities, which typically overlap, can include age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture or language as well as physical, economic, and social status. Fragmentation and competing identities within a society, coupled with real or perceived exclusion, can fuel violence and undermine peacebuilding efforts.

Building more sustainable peace depends on healing the wounds and defusing the underlying tensions that have pulled apart the social fabric of a society. An effective peace process is the tool with which to knit together that frayed fabric and generate enduring stability.

Our pillars of peacebuilding

  • Local ownership

We believe that societies should embrace peaceful relations. Together with our local partners, we create opportunities for dialogue to allow active participation of locals in identifying peacebuilding challenges and solutions. By ensuring local ownership, we pave the way for the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.
We are keen to ensure that priorities are determined locally and not imposed from the outside, because local ownership ensures that local concerns are at the center of the peacebuilding process.

  • Building trust and cooperation

Trust refers to positive expectations about the actions of another party. Trust across groups is key to facilitating conflict resolution partly because it reduces the need for monitoring the parties in cooperation; and helps individuals and groups remain engaged in the long and difficult process of peace building.

  • Inclusivity

Inclusivity is a crucial factor in building sustainable peace. It is not enough to bring the armed actors to the negotiating table. To be effective, the process needs to give all groups in society the opportunity to be heard and to have their concerns addressed. This in turn ensures that those most affected—in terms both of fighting on the front lines and of bearing the brunt of the consequences—are actively involved and have a stake in their society’s transformation.
All stakeholder groups affected by conflicts must have a seat at the table. Engaging historically excluded or marginalized groups is vital to fostering inclusion. Indeed, increasing evidence suggests that not only including women but also enabling them to have an influential role increases the likelihood of reaching and implementing a peace agreement.
The timing and manner of inclusion is crucial. Depending on how they think a peace process will affect their interests, both powerholders and marginalized groups may try to act as spoilers. To minimize this potential, those managing the peacebuilding process need to carefully choose whom to involve, their degree of involvement, and the timing of each participation.

  • Promoting long-term commitment

Peacebuilding is a long-term process of encouraging people to talk, repairing relationships, and reforming institutions. For positive change to last, everyone affected by a destructive conflict has to be involved in the process of building peace. Long-term commitment is key to putting an end to violence.
To us, peacebuilding does not simply mean creating a situation where there is no conflict (negative peace), but where there is no cause of conflict (positive peace) by removing factors that contribute to the eruption of conflicts; and establishing a new structure within a society which contributes to consolidation of peace.
Principles of Conflict Resolution

  • Clarify the Conflict Situation

Conflict is a dispute in a situation defined by the parties’ underlying goals and beliefs, mutual perception and communication, and the facts involved.
Passions and beliefs become evident; the nature and intensity of hidden interests surface. In the process of achieving a new structure of expectations, conflict integrates underlying goals and mutual perceptions into a balance among the central interests at stake, the resolution, and the ability of the parties to support them.

Steps to understanding an existing conflict:

  • Uncover the underlying or hidden goals and beliefs. Look beneath the conflict. A dispute really may be about hidden, perhaps even unconscious, beliefs and values.
  • Determine the facts. Fact finding is essential to resolving conflict, for often conflicts are generated by a misperception or misunderstanding of the facts involved.
  • Be sensitive to the other’s position and perspective. See the conflict through his eyes; and note that resolving conflict is partially empathizing with the other.
  • State the other’s argument and demands. Miscommunication and misperception can play a large role in conflict. One way to reduce these problems is to seek mutual agreement on the issue, claims, and justifications.

 

  • Define a “Yesable” Interest

Peacemaking partially involves a party separating what they want the other to do from the conflict’s self-assertive and emotional contents. To this end, phrase demands or requests so that the other can respond with a simple “yes” or “no.”
Focus on the decisions the other should make and clarify the outcome of these decisions. That is, what will happen if their answer is “yes”? Or no?

  • Focus on an Exchange

Making attractive offers and rewarding agreement–that is, by seeking an exchange in which interests are mutually satisfied, can provide a more durable balance of power for subsequent cooperation and contribute to a peace of mutual satisfaction.
Of course, one may not always be able to focus on an exchange, especially if the other insists on altering the status quo in his favor, or if making an offer in response to aggression or threats communicates weakness or appeasement.
Moreover, the other may make completely unjust demands in the hope that through compromise he will get something. Nonetheless, one should have a disposition toward an exchange.

  • Emphasize Legitimacy

Recognize a conflict’s legitimacy. To say or imply that one’s demands or requests are meaningless or silly is unnecessary and intolerant; it raises the heat of conflict and may prolong it. Acknowledge the significance of what the parties believe is important enough to argue or fight about.
It may also help to involve a legitimate third party. They can provide objective fact-finding, encourage hidden interests or beliefs to surface, clarify misperception and miscommunication, and propose compromises. Even the mutual acceptance of a third party and the process of clarifying the issue for him can be first and second steps toward conflict resolution.

  • Keep Issue and Power Proportional

Excessive promises, threats, or appeals to authority weaken credibility and defeat their use when a vital issue comes. Whatever sanctions, threats, offers, or promises are made, keep them in line with the demand or request. That is, make them consistent with the interests involved.

  • Display Commitment

Attention to how the other perceives one’s will is essential to peacemaking. Whether he believes one’s promises or threats, questions one’s legitimacy, or accepts one’s capability will help determine if he escalates or settles the conflict.
Avoid unnecessary escalation and misunderstandings, therefore, strive for credibility: the basis of demands, requests, or offers should be believable and performable; and through relevant actions and preparations, display a readiness to react to the other’s positive or negative responses.

  • Resist Aggression

Forcibly imposing one’s values and goals on another, aside from its general immorality, can create smoldering resentment, grievance, and hostility that later may burst into greater conflict and violence.
Peacemaking principles help avoid pointless escalation and aggravating conflict interaction. They speed up the trial-and-error adjustment of opposing interests. And they help establish a more acceptable, more stable peace permitting incremental progress toward social justice.

Justice and poverty eradication

As Capuchins, we recognize that many forms of oppression, perpetuated by imbalances of power and privilege undermine justice in our society. Societal structures in Kenya concentrate wealth and economic resources to a minority, while limiting economic and social mobility of the majority. This “structural violence” serves those in power.
Through collaborative endeavors, our aim is to challenge inequalities rooted in ethnicity, gender, location, religion, and social class. Caring for the most vulnerable populations is an integral part of our Capuchin charism.

Our poverty reduction strategies include:

  • Establishing a microfinance institution to support small businesses.
    • Provision of affordable credit for start-ups and micro enterprises.
  • Provision of bursaries and stationeries to poor children.
  • Supporting value addition initiatives to increase farmers income.
    • processing and packaging of fruit juices and dairy products; pickling vegetables such as cucumber, olives, and mushrooms.
  • Energy production from agricultural products.
    • Biofuels such as biodiesel from corn and soybeans.
  • Initiate economic activities such as:
    • soap making
    • Toilet Cleaner making.
    • Production of reusable sanitary towels.
    • goat farming for meat and milk.
    • Solar lamp production.
    • Sugarcane juice production.
    • Handicrafts production.
    • Candle-making.
    • Chicken feed production.
    • Fruit jam production.
  • Organizing training sessions for potential entrepreneurs.
  • Promoting urban farming techniques for income and food security.
  • Donating clothes and food stuff.
  • Establishing a Soup Kitchen to feed the hungry.
  • Campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriages.
    • We plan to establish a safe house for victims and potential victims.
  • Promoting technical skills through partnerships with vocational institutions.
  • Promoting sustainable and quality healthcare.
    • We plan to expand our health infrastructure and medical supplies
  • Providing relief aid to persons affected by natural disasters such as floods and drought.

Care for Creation

Care for Creation in our Daily Lives as Capuchins

Capuchins are committed to environmental sustainability. We are mindful of the effect that we have on our environment and natural resources. As a group and as individuals, we make a conscious effort to produce the smallest environmental impact so that we may preserve our quality of life for present and future generations.

In order to care for creation we propose a moderate, sober and just use of resources, beginning with the famous three R’s of ecology (Reduce, Reuse/Repair and Recycle).

Food and climate change

Capuchins acknowledge that there is a nexus between food and climate change. About a third of all the world’s food goes to waste, and producing, transporting and letting that food rot releases 8 -10% of global greenhouse gasses.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), If food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the US and China. When food is thrown away it rots and releases yet more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, thus our campaigns against climate change in this regard.

 

Strategies to address food insecurity

  • Boosting irrigation
    • With the growing effects of climate change on weather patterns, more irrigation will be needed.
  • Increasing farmers’ access to land, water and financial services to pay for seeds, tools and fertilizer.
  • Partnership with government and non-government agencies to coordinate the integration of smallholder farmers into larger cooperatives and groups with the aim to improve access to wider markets.
  • Utilization of information technology.
    • Simply giving farmers information about crop prices in different markets can increase their bargaining power.
  • Advocating for rural infrastructure development such as roads to raise productivity through reductions in shipping costs; and the loss of perishable produce.
  • Improve access to adequate credit facilities in rural areas.

Water and sanitation

Governments and humanitarian organizations use access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities as a measure of progress against poverty, disease, and death. Access to these services by every man, woman, and child is also considered a human right. Though progress has been made to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people throughout the world, billions of people still lack access to these services.

For example, Kenya has a population of approximately 50 million people of which 15% rely on unimproved water sources, such as ponds, shallow wells and rivers, while 41% lack access to basic sanitation solutions. These challenges are especially evident in rural areas and urban slums where people are often unable to connect to piped water infrastructure. As Capuchins we aim to address Kenya’s water and sanitation crisis through feasible policy interventions.

Our strategies to increase access to sustainable water supply

  • Drilling boreholes.
  • Construction of dams.
  • Establishing household sanitation and handwashing facilities with water and soap.
    • Digging latrines
  • Wastewater treatment.
  • Rainwater harvesting.
    • Establishing water catchment systems: for example, installing a water tank/barrel at a gutter downspout to collect rainwater,
  • Establishing desalination plants.
    • They remove the salt from seawater to make it safe to drink.
  • Distributing larger containers to families in order to increase the quantity of potable water stored at home and decrease the number of trips per day to water sources

 

Energy

We recognize the environmental and economic benefits associated with clean and renewable energy. For example, clean energy works by producing power without having negative environmental impacts such as the release of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide; and it reduces the dependence on imported fuels.

Renewable clean energy also has inherent cost savings as there is no need to extract and transport fuels, such as oil and  coal, as they recharge themselves naturally. Other industrial benefits of a clean energy mix is the creation of jobs to develop, manufacture and install the clean energy resources of the future.

Nature conservation and climate change mitigation strategies:

  • Increased use of solar energy:
    • Installation of solar panels.
    • Solar cookers/stoves.
    • Solar light bulbs & lamps.
    • Solar water heaters.
  • Promoting transition to organic agriculture in order to reduce the negative impact of agro-chemicals.
  • Production of recycled and biodegradable materials for example, bamboo straws, avocado cutlery, and seaweed.
  • Planting mangrove trees where many have been cut down.
    • Mangrove forests defend coastal wetlands against sea level rise by buffering storm surges and floodwaters, and store a lot of carbon in their roots and soils.
  • Diversifying crops and including livestock on lands can give farmers additional sources of income and reduce the risks to livelihoods caused by climate change and unpredictable weather.
  • Promoting public transport and sustainable mobility by increasing the number of journeys in towns by bicycle, and taking more trips by train or in shared cars.