We also take this opportunity to interview Ruth Casals, director of the International Cooperation area of the ‘Camins’ Foundation, who will explain to us the merger of three entities (including Fundació Educació Solidària) into one, which has become ’Camins’.

Interview
Marcel, how did you find out about the call for grants?

It all started through a teacher at UPF, the now retired Mercè Tricàs, who proposed the initiative in the field of languages. It should be noted that the UPF Solidària call for grants has been open for 15 years, and our project has received the grant every year: in total, more than 70,000 euros between 2008 and 2022. Thanks to these fifteen years of receiving this financial support, we have witnessed significant developments by the recipients, and many
 improvements have been made to the project.

One of the most visible developments in the project has been the empowerment of Senegalese teachers during these fifteen years and the creation of the link they have made with pupils. Indeed, the fact that we are the same trainers who benefit each year has meant that the teachers are more trusting and the project has been able to grow as it has.

For example, in the case of Senegal and Ivory Coast we have seen that insistence has led to the progression of the participating centres. The fact that there is some continuity has meant that the projects are becoming established. The recipient teachers have been more or less the same, but the contents of the seminars have changed every year, as have the recipient pupils, as these teachers have applied the improvements and learning acquired on each course in their classes.

On the other hand, I would like to add that, during each year of the project, we must try not to make the mistake that trainers from a rich country come to teach how to take the lessons. What we have always tried to do is to value highly the things that they do in their context and, on that basis, make didactic improvements, always being tactful and empathic.
After a while, we have also managed to make seminars a space for sharing good practices among teachers in these African countries, which has created interesting peer learning processes. Certainly in the future, and among their pupils, there will be more students who want to continue training in the sciences.

And what encouraged you to join this project?
I live in a world I don’t really like. I want to fix things and make it possible for everyone to have access to education of an acceptable quality. When you are aware of such harsh realities as in countries of Africa, with major inequalities, you want to try to bring about change.

When you realize the impact you can make with this tiny grain of sand, you feel highly motivated to continue. If nothing is done, there will be no change. In addition, as a more personal experience, thanks to volunteering, I learned French. In the first year I went there with virtually no knowledge of the language and now I can communicate perfectly. For all of these reasons, and a lot more, when you do these types of volunteer work and you see the impact they have on society, you have no hesitation in repeating the experience.

Ruth, we would like you to explain to us how the idea of merging the two entities came about: Fundació Educació Solidària and Fundació Servei Solidari, to create this new Foundation, ‘Camins’.

In fact, there are three foundations: Servei Solidari, Benallar and Educació Solidària. The merger has been carried out mainly for two reasons. On the one hand, to optimize the resources of the three entities. And, on the other, to improve our public positioning. Working together, we are more visible, we strengthen the mission and we multiply the scope of our actions. Actions aimed at transforming society through education.

This new ‘Camins’ Foundation accompanies vulnerable children and young people to get access a better future through education. Our projects are carried out in Catalonia, but also in impoverished countries and in areas of high conflict such as West Africa or Baja California in Mexico.

The entity is organized into work areas. Apart from the cross-cutting areas such as administration and accounting or legal services and awareness-raising, there are three main areas: childhood and families, youth, and international cooperation. In each of these areas, the different projects carried out by the entity are grouped together.

How can people collaborate with the project and/or the Foundation?

Marcel: Well, there are several ways to collaborate, from the simplest possible, such as taking an interest in the project at the UPF Solidària Fair, to others that are far more involved, such as volunteering for teaching support during the summer in Senegal. There, during the long summer holidays, children switch off from school for almost four months. In addition, families often take advantage of these periods for their children to work to provide extra income at home. These are often very precarious and dangerous jobs. What often happens is that some of these students no longer return to school and continue to work. By conducting summer schools with these young people, we make it easier for them to continue with their education.

Ruth: Through the ‘Camins’ Foundation, there is the opportunity of doing short-term or long-term international volunteering to contribute to the projects of our counterparts in Senegal and Mexico. All information is available at https://www.pathsfundacio.org/que-fem/cooperacio-international/.

What projects are you planning to submit to the 2023 call for grants?

The idea of involving the students more and working directly with them has been around for a while, since a great deal of work has been done on teacher training; but application in the classrooms is far slower and more indirect.

One year we tried putting teachers and students to work together. For the following call, we want to extend this format by organizing a summer school, for example. Along with a further two important details, because we will get back to working face-to-face, in person, and we will be able to go to the schools. And it will probably be a blended format, as a new country has been incorporated this year: Ivory Coast, which would do so online.

What do you think about the University getting involved in cooperation and development initiatives?

It is very important for an institution like a university to have some of its resources and time devoted to solidarity projects. One important reason is that a key objective of higher education is to train citizens with the aim of achieving a better world, and this can only be done by eliminating the differences and inequalities in today’s world. The subjects of equity and solidarity should be included in the students’ curricula to project this transversality in their studies. The fact that the university itself is involved enables putting the theory into practice.

One of the actions undertaken by the University is the UPF Solidària fair. One of its goals is to ensure this space for exchange and transversality, where students can get to know about all these projects first hand. The ‘Camins’ Foundation and the teachers at UPF involved in the project valued the 2022 Fair most highly and, in particular, the large number of students who came to ask questions and took an interest in it compared to other years.