The Covid-19 pandemic brough unprecedented changes in the lives of people worldwide especially the poor. As the world saw suffering and loss of loved ones, the poor and mariginalised, especially migrant workers, additionally faced the starvation, homelessness, lack of medical access, and fear of loss of livelihood. In response to this crisis, Jesuits across South Asia have been reaching out to affected people, independently and as a community, through psycho-social support, medical aid, food and shelter, financial aid, etc. Identifying the need to set up a crisis response mechanism at the Jesuit Conference of South Asia (JCSA) level, the President of South Asia announced the setting up of JRH in 2020, with the Conference Development Office as the lead in collaboration with the Core and Advisory
Committees that includes ISI-Delhi, Jesuits in Social Action (JESA), Jesuit Alumni Association of India (JAAI) and others. This was also a response to the mandate from the Fr. General to gather information on Jesuit initiatives and relief works in the Covid-19 context. The JRH initiative additionally aligns itself with supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well Being), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

The purpose of JRH is to support the Provinces and Communities in “Reaching out to the Unreached” by offering network linkages and support towards resource mobilisation, media and communication, programme management, data management and analysis etc. Additionally, it seeks to provide a common platform for Jesuits, partners and collaborators to facilitate collective action. In future, JRH is envisaged as the Disaster/Crisis Response Mechanism of JCSA at the conference level towards any such crisis.