Indonesian Jesuits Launch Three-Tier Volunteer Drive for Papua Mission

The Indonesian Jesuit Province has launched a three-tier recruitment drive for its 2026–2027 Jesuit Volunteer for Papua (JVP) program to accommodate different levels of commitment while reframing missionary service as a school of human formation.

The year-round initiative invites young professionals, graduates, and students across Southeast Asia to participate in educational, pastoral, and community development roles in Indonesia's easternmost region.

Assignments are centered in two primary hubs in Central Papua: the coastal town of Nabire and the mountainous parish of Waghete in Deiyai Regency.

Underlining the initiative's vision, Fr. Johanes Sudrijanta, SJ, Rector of Le Cocq de’Armaville College in Nabire, stressed that the volunteer drive is structured around three pathways rather than a one-size-fits-all model:

• Volunteer Waghete (Highland Education & Pastoral Care): A minimum one-year commitment supporting primary and junior secondary education, tutoring, Sunday school, and dormitory mentorship at St. John Pemandani Parish Church in the Central Papua highlands.
• Volunteer Nabire (Academic Teaching & Mentorship): A minimum two-year commitment at SMA YPPK Adhi Luhur (Le Cocq College), the sole Jesuit high school in Papua. Placements cover specialized teaching disciplines, including mathematics, languages, anthropology, history, biology, and guidance counseling, alongside dormitory supervision.
• Volunteer Bakti Sela Waktu (Flexible Short-Term Service): An adaptable pathway lasting from several weeks to months, designed for young adults in transitional phases, such as those taking a gap period, awaiting university entrance, or seeking employment.

Fr. Sudrijanta emphasized that across all three tracks, volunteers are not recruited merely as "additional manpower" to solve staff shortages, but to enter a transformative process of personal growth. "Volunteers are encouraged to listen before speaking, understand before judging, and be present before offering solutions," Fr. Sudrijanta said, adding that true service requires moving away from an urge to "fix" local communities toward walking alongside Papuan Indigenous peoples with mutual respect.

Volunteers in the long-term Waghete and Nabire tracks receive round-trip travel, lodging, meals, and a personal stipend, while participants in the short-term Bakti Sela Waktu track cover their own travel and personal expenses, with accommodation and meals provided by the organizers.

Recruitment remains open continuously, with departure intakes organized biannually every January and July. Grounded in Ignatian spirituality, the program aims to cultivate conscience, compassion, and commitment, equipping volunteers to carry a spirit of service into their future professional lives.