News Archive

On February 14th 2024, SIMI organized the webinar Communicating Migration: Resistance, Resilience, and Activism. We share the welcoming speech of Fr. Aldo Skoda, director of SIMI, and recordings of the speakers' speeches. "Thank you for joining us. Migration has indeed become a defining feature of the social, cultural, economic, political and religious life of a world increasingly characterized by the controversial forces of globalization as well as by ongoing conflicts and growing natural disasters. It is also a dominant theme in the media, which often stoke fears and divisions at the expense of the stories and lives of those involved. [...]

“Building bridges and tearing down walls” through migrant resistance, resilience, activism, and world making On February 14th 2024, SIMI organized the webinar Communicating Migration: Resistance, Resilience, and Activism. After opening words from Veronica De Sanctis, Project Manager at SIMI and moderator of the webinar, Fr. Aldo Skoda, Executive Director of SIMI and Professor of Pastoral​​ Theology and Human Mobility at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, mentioned the fears and divisions particularly prevalent in current media, wherein migrants and refugees are often used as merely a tool for creating divisions. To oppose this narrative, he stated that this webinar would [...]

The Global Refugee Forum 2023 and the need for international cooperation towards humanity and fraternity By Annemarijn Cozijnsen From the 13th to the 15th of December, the Global Refugee Forum 2023 took place in Geneva, Switzerland. This Forum is organized every four years, in order to assist the practical implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees, a 2018 United Nations agreement and framework aimed at improving the international response to the needs of refugees. The Global Compact on Refugees sets out a framework for fairer responsibility-sharing across countries on the basis of improved international cooperation, as well as a blueprint [...]

Unite, Act, Deliver: the nexus between climate change and human mobility at COP28 By Annemarijn Cozijnsen On December 12, 2023, the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). COP28 was an important UN Summit - lasting from November 30 until December 12, 2023 -, bringing nations and other stakeholders together in order to find global solutions to the climate crisis. Some 85,000 participants were present at COP28, sharing ideas and building coalitions. Herein, the critical connections between climate change and human mobility were highlighted [...]

Uganda hosts more refugees than any other country in Africa and is now a case study. What is the situation in Kampala, the area where you serve? Can you tell us about the Scalabrinian mission? (When was it opened, etc...) Thank you for this question. Kampala is one of the fastest growing African cities in terms of markets and business. This has become a pull factor for some economic migrants and refugees (including those in refugee settlements). Therefore, there's a massive presence of migrants and refugees in Kampala, originating from other African countries. There are several large communities of migrants [...]

I am Father Karim KONSEIMBO, a member of a Catholic religious institute called the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), founded in Algeria in 1868 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie. The Society of Missionaries of Africa was officially registered in Uganda  on April 1st, 1987. Here we are part of the pastoral agents of the Diocese of Arua Uganda. For our mission with the refugees here we have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) of  Uganda through the Catholic Bishop of Arua Diocese. With two confrères, I work as a Missionary of Africa [...]

Hello everyone! My name is Annemarijn Cozijnsen and I am a Dutch student following the MA Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution at The American University of Rome. Next to that, I am a Research Fellow at the Regional Academy on the United Nations 2023, for which I’m conducting research for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). I did my bachelors in Liberal Arts & Sciences at University College Utrecht, where I majored in Political Science & Religious Studies. In my interdisciplinary studies, I have thus learned about the importance and impact of religious movements and public theology [...]