Rerum Novarum Centre

Rerum Novarum Centre

Predecessor	Social Service Centre
Established	1971 (1971)
Location	Taipei, Taiwan
Chairman	Yves Nalet SJ
Director	Sr. Stephana Wei, MMB
Main organ	Rerum Novarum Bulletin
Affiliations	Jesuit, Catholic
Staff	Ten full-time
Website	RerNovarSocCent

Rerum Novarum Centre, Taipei, increased operations in 1971 but had roots going back to Jesuit social services in Taiwan since the 1950s. The Centre tries to meet the major social and legal needs of native and foreign workers in the greater Taipei area, while also responding to emergencies and to the needs of the aboriginal peoples of Northern Taiwan.

History

Social Service Centre

Since the 1950s the Society of Jesus in Taiwan has pastored parishes among the Atayal tribe in north-central Taiwan and Jesuits in the cities have advocated for the rights of workers and of the disabled.

In the 1960s, an American Jesuit Fr. E. Dowd founded in Hsinchu a vocational school and dormitory for young workers. This work has evolved into the Catholic Social Service Centre in Hsinchu which employs some 30 persons and has several divisions. Since the 1990s it has a day centre which serves some 50 elderly daily. There is also a home services division which sends social workers to the homes of elderly and disabled persons. Counseling services are offered to households and families in difficulty. The Centre offers various vocational and artistic classes. The Centre's Board of Management is composed of three Jesuits, one Sister, and three lay persons who assist the directress Ms. Yang Yinmei.^[1]

Rerum Novarum Centre

In 1971 Jesuits responded to the increasing influx of workers into Taipei by opening a centre that gathered information on problems facing workers, that trained union leaders, and that monitored the government's labour policies. The centre was named after Rerum Novarum ("Of New Things"), the 1891 encyclical of Pope Leo XIII which was the first in a series of social encyclicals in the Catholic church.

By the 1980s Rerum Novarum Centre was offering legal advice along with health and safety services for workers and was publishing books on worker issues. These issues grew to include advocacy for workers' rights, anti-nuclear power, and the environment, which also drew staff and volunteers to join street protests.^[2] By the 1990s the Center's work had grown in assisting foreign workers and in tending to occupational injuries. Then after the Jiji earthquake in 1999 services were increased on behalf of the aboriginal communities of Nantou and Hsinchu counties.^[1]

Rerum Novarum Centre along with the Social Service Centre in Hsinchu comprise the main social justice works of the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus.^[3] In 1995 the founding director of Rerum Novarum Centre, Jesuit Fr. Ellacuría, retired. The director became Mercedarian Sr. Stephana Wei,^[4] who also serves on several government and civil society advisory commissions on human rights and women’s rights.^[5] In 2015 the staff of Rerum Novarum consisted of ten employees full-time and several part-time.^[1] Included on the staff were two Jesuits, two Dominican Sisters, and a Buddhist.^[4]

Pictures of the educational facility at the Centre in Taipei are available on the web.^[6]

Programs

Domestic

The Rerum Novarum Centre through its Taipei and Nantou offices provides employment services.^[7] Two of its major tasks are training labor leaders and offering social justice seminars open to all. It also promotes the cause of women workers. Other ongoing tasks are education for laborers and community building among the tribal communities. Rerum Novarum Bulletin, its Chinese-language bimonthly, draws public attention to labor issues from a Christian perspective.^[4]

The Centre annually provides legal aid for some 400 clients, in court and through case-related counseling.^[4] It is a collaborating partner with the Legal Aid Foundation of Taiwan, where Sr. Wei is also on the International Affairs Committee.^[8]

The Centre offers victims of occupational injuries rehabilitation services and assists their families. But with a reported four thousand employment-related injuries in Taiwan each year, resources are insufficient and integration among various services in the city needs improvement.^[9]

Aboriginal

After the Jiji earthquake in 1999, while much attention and assistance were directed to major sites in coastal lands, the aborigines who reside in the mountains were underserved, stranded in the mountains without food and water, their road to the outside world blocked by the earthquake. The Jesuits who work in the mountain parishes alerted Rerum Novarum who publicized the need, and 20 tons of goods were delivered in a day.^[10]

The Centre has ongoing programs to assist the aborigines and it advocates for their rights. It helps those who move to the city to find employment.^[11] It runs two antennas among the aborigines in Nantou and Hsinchu counties. In Nantou it helps these natives to produce and market their high-mountain tea. And in 2005 it set up tutorial classes for junior high school students in Hsinchu County, where it also extended its services to households in crisis and has helped with the sale of honey peaches.”^[1]

Foreign

Ease of travel and attractive salaries abroad have led to mass migration of domestic workers in the Asia-Pacific area. But workers often find themselves powerless to defend themselves from inhumane treatment. The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific launched a new effort in 2010 to protect the rights of migrants, with the Rerum Novarum Centre its partner in Taiwan.^[12]

Services offered by the Centre include a temporary shelter for homeless migrant women,^[13] tutoring for new immigrant children, family reading classes, publications in many languages, and foreign language libraries. It offers legal aid and caseworkers for migrants and assistance after work-related injuries. It offers empowerment and community-building programs, and advocacy and action initiatives for human rights.^[2] It partnered in a campaign for legislation protecting the interests of employers, housemaids, and caregivers, both native and foreign,^[14] and it protested accommodation fees deducted from salaries of foreign migrant workers^[15]

The Centre has been singled out for its consultation and advisory services for foreign spouses and children^[16] and is mentioned by the government for assisting migrants and foreign spouses in resolving labor relation and other problems.^[17]

Since 2001 the Centre has been part of a coalition that focuses on the defense of foreign domestic workers from Indonesia.^[18]

There are an estimated 60,000-70,000 women from the Philippines in Taiwan who serve as domestic workers, and do not enjoy the legal protection granted factory workers. The Centre offers counseling and helps with the paperwork in Chinese. It also offers education and facilitates Mandarin classes^[19] and career meetings – plus Bible sharing.^[20] About 200 migrant workers attend the Sunday religious and social gathering that includes lessons in Chinese.^[4] At a conference in Tokyo, the directress and a researcher on the staff explained the problem elderly Filipino migrants have in using the modern information technologies for family communication and for remittance of money, and the exploitation of these people.^[5]

The Center has a dedicated website explaining the services it offers in Taipei for migrant workers.^[13]

References

Coordinates: 25°1′43.94″N 121°31′59.73″E / 25.0288722°N 121.5332583°E / 25.0288722; 121.5332583