Uniservitate projects helping refugees with skills and integration

Deborah Castellano Lubov

“One of our institutions is studying a research project on how refugee children are integrated into local education systems.”

In an interview with Vatican News, Barbara McCrabb, member of the Uniservitate academic think tank and deputy director of higher education at the Secretariat for Catholic Education of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), made this observation.

She spoke to Vatican News on the sidelines of the Unservitate awards ceremony at Rome’s Lumsa Pontifical University on Thursday morning.

“This has been a wonderful opportunity to engage in a broader conversation,” she said, noting that “in the United States, I think many of our institutions are engaged in service-learning of various manners.”

“Uniservitate,” she noted, “has helped us explain how Catholic social teaching, the pedagogy of service learning, helps us promote the identity and mission of our Catholic colleges and universities.”

“Our establishments have won awards because they display best practices in what they do,” she said, amazed. “To me, the creativity of our students is extraordinary.”

An expert speaks on Catholic higher education

A “privilege” for her, she shared. had the opportunity to be part of the gathering of Africa Hubs of their institutions involving Catholic institutions and universities.

“In some ways,” she noted, “I think their students are newer to the service-learning conversation, but they come in with a lot of curiosity about their courses or the real community challenges, whether it’s environmental issues or health issues, education issues that they’re engaging in.”

“Some of our universities in the United States, for example one of our universities,” recalled McCrabb, have a relationship with Tangaza University in Kenya.

The global network enriches

“They’re working on education issues and developing curriculum, but they’re doing it by talking with each other. And that’s just a nice benefit of the global network that this university brings.”

Finally, she recalled the collaborations within the Episcopal Conference with the migration and refugee services, expressing their various efforts to help refugees, through primary schools and universities.

She welcomed a project which helps to better include children in primary schools and provide additional support to their families.

This global alliance, she emphasized, “helps us have better ideas and resources as we work together in this process.”

University Prize

THE University Prize is a global recognition of the best service-learning experiences in Catholic higher education. It builds on the assertion of the Global Compact on Education: “The true service of education is education for service”.

The Prize, organized every two years, is open to Catholic higher education establishments, whether academic or not, with experience in projects, good practices, courses or institutional programs involving solidarity service . These initiatives actively engage students as leaders in the community, intentionally integrating into curriculum content and research agendas.

Helping refugees acquire digital skills

Vatican News spoke to Professor Timothy Kabare who worked closely with the Tangaza University student who won the Uniservitate Prize for his Digital Innovative Skills Hub (DISH) project.

The project is an online education program aimed at marginalized groups, particularly refugees from other African countries, hosted in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana County, Kenya, and provides them with experience and skills that promote autonomy, knowledge of their rights and peaceful coexistence. .

“Our project was launched in Kakuma, Turkana County, in the northern corridor of Kenya, which, he explained, is “an arid area, with an occupation of almost 400,000 refugees.”

With this in mind, the professor noted, our online program “was intended to reach the less fortunate and marginalized people of Kakuma,” with courses “designed in a way that meets the Sustainable Development Goals.”

“Filling the void”

Professor Kabare explained how he personally teaches some of these students, observing that they lack staff working in schools and often have to rely on organizations to compensate.

Given this, he explained, “DISH came to fill the void. We train the refugees so that they are able to serve their own people in the camp. That’s what it’s all about .”

Global Compact on Education

On September 12, 2019, Pope Francis issued an “invitation for dialogue on how we shape the future of our planet and the need to employ the talents of all, because any change requires an educational process aimed at developing a new universal solidarity and a welcoming society. »

To this end, it approved a Global Compact on Education “to revive our commitment for and with young people, by renewing our passion for a more open and inclusive education, including patient listening, constructive dialogue and better mutual understanding.”

This Compact laid the foundation for the Uniservitate initiative.

V Uniservitate Global Symposium

This Fifth Uniservitate Global Symposiumon the theme “Transforming higher education from within” takes place every year and this year focuses on one of the key axes of the initiative, namely “the institutionalization of learning through solidarity service” .

With the support of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, Uniservitate coordinators and the LUMSA hosting team have prepared an intense program during which symposium participants explore possible ways to institutionalize learning through solidarity service in Catholic higher education establishments.

Additionally, discussions take place on the spirituality of service as well as perspectives from the Global Compact on Education, the Sustainable Development Goals and SSL best practices. Students and faculty involved in the winning Uniservitate projects will also present their experiences.

At the end of these two days of meeting and work, Pope Francis will receive the participants in the symposium in a private audience on November 9.