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s2smodern

The Portuguese Province of the Society of Jesus has created the Ponto de Escuta (Listening Point), a listening service to welcome and talk to people who feel more alone and disoriented in these months of confinement unleashed by the pandemic. The service, staffed by volunteers, consists of a confidential, free, and non-specialized telephone service to listen and encourage those who need to get things off their chest.

After two months, more than 100 people have contacted this service and the feedback is very positive. They are essentially women, of all ages and from all over the world, and in the majority of cases manifest difficulties in family and work relationships, aggravated by the loneliness in which they find themselves and the greater difficulty in asking for help, even if informal, from people with whom they previously lived - friends, relatives, work colleagues.

Besides the referral to support services in the community (psychological, social), the volunteers can also accompany those who wish to do so to spiritual accompaniment with a Jesuit, something that has already happened in about twenty cases.

“Ponto de Escuta” is available through Ponto SJ, the Jesuits' portal in Portugal, and was born within the Province's Service of Protection and Care. In addition to about 50 volunteers who provide assistance, it is composed of a multidisciplinary team which includes a jurist, a psychologist, a Jesuit and a person from the Province's Communication Office.

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