Profiles of our lay missionaries

Reflection after 7 years in the field

I guess for many, 7 years is a short time – if they intended coming for longer. For me I was coming for 2 years and then coming back to Ireland. People tell me I must be enjoying it – because I’m still here. Yes I am enjoying my time in South East Asia. In Cambodia they have a word that explains a lot ‘lucky’. Yes I feel I have been lucky, I continue to be lucky.

After 3 years as Country Director for COERR (Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees) – a Commission of the Thai Catholic Bishops’ Conference COERR successfully returned to Thailand after passing over to the Cambodian Catholic Church a number of projects that were being implemented, in addition others  were taken over by a National Cambodian NGO.

So – in 2004 a difficult decision had to be made whether to return home or continue in Cambodia and or to continue with COERR in Thailand. A compromise was reached by which I would stay & share my time. Every month I travel between the two countries, in Thailand working with the Bishops’ Conference in the work of Caritas Thailand and in Cambodia working with the National NGO Partners in Compassion.

My time in Cambodia has been rewarding – when we started operations in 2004 we had 3 projects at 2 locations – now we have 12 projects at 7 locations. It has been hard work for the national staff, at the beginning there was one, now there are three. Active Management of Projects is vital to their good implementation, transparency and accountability. The requirements of international partner organizations are becoming tighter, while at the same time we experience a genuine invitation to partnership that includes capacity building and in some cases a consultancy service.

As for my work with The Bishops’ Conference, I can only say I’ve been lucky, being at the right place at the right time. COERR accepted me in the first place to come to work in Cambodia, I still feel allegiance to the Bishops’ Conference and the social work being undertaken by Caritas Thailand.

I was in Thailand just as Tsunami hit and was appointed to a team of Thai Church personnel to provide technical assistance this work lasted for just over 1 year. I was in the office in Bangkok one morning when I was invited to attend a meeting with a representative from an Oil and Gas Company – this first meeting lead to the appointment of a large project to compensate victims of forced labor in Burma – for the past 2 years my role has been of technical assistant. This project is now coming to its conclusion. More recently we have started to work on the development of a Regional Project for Migrants with the International Catholic Commission on Migration (ICMC). Workshops have been held with prospective partner organizations in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

Mission in Asia has been well spelt out in ‘Evangelization in Modern Day Asia’ (Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference, Taipei April 1974) as being ‘inculturation’ (the local church truly present in the life of the people) ‘dialogue’ (with the great Asian religions) and ‘Service of the poor (uniting with them in their struggle for a more human world).

I am thankful to the many people I’ve met and worked with along the 7 years that have made this experience so rich with memories and challenging at times – the children of our Children Sponsorship Programme, the Community Leaders of the Communities in which we work, the beneficiaries of the programs, the Thai, Myanmar, Cambodian and Laos Migrants, the Hierarchy, Clergy and Religious…..everyone!

Patrick Mooney

31 March 2008