Edu: The OARS includes different free legal consultancies and serves as a tool of PUCP itself in its capacity as a socially responsible institution. The OARS is in charge of running the consultancies. We could say it acts as their headquarters. These consultancies are spread between the university and different neighbourhoods in the city. They deal with all kinds of claims, usually based on the district they are located in. There are five consultancies, three of them located in different districts of Lima and two within the university.

All the consultancies deal with a diverse range of cases and claims, based on the needs of the people that go there, except in the Unicxs Consultancy, which is aimed exclusively at the trans collective, dealing with changes to national ID cards and situations of discrimination. In the others, although there is a wide range of different claims, there are patterns that often repeat themselves: in the consultancies located in the districts of Sant Juan de Lurigancho and Chorrillos, the themes that arise most frequently are family-related (affiliation and maintenance); in the consultancy in the centre of Lima, they deal most often with civil law (contracts, property, etc.), while the consultancy located on the PUCP campus receives an endless variety of cases.

“The consultancies receive all kinds of claims, usually based on the district they are located in”

Marta: The OARS has other roles which we were also involved in, such as collaborating with legal clinics, which serve as optional subjects for students (like the legal consultancies), and which we were able to attend. There’s the clinic for people with disabilities, for gender-based violence, the environment, migration… Some of the cases from the consultancies are referred to the clinics and vice-versa, depending on the issues and, you could say, the case’s doctrinal relevance.

The legal clinics are like a series of lectures on existing national and international law focused on a specific issue and recent cases. What most surprised me is that they also deal with real cases with a particular social relevance and interest. The teacher acts as a lawyer for the specific case, but all the related work is done by the group-class together.

“What most surprised me is that they also deal with real cases with a particular social relevance and interest”

Marta: I think I was surprised by the project of the OARS itself. In a context in which access to legal aid is complex, they are giving good quality, free legal advice; and it comes from the students! It was amazing to see the good that a university can do for its immediate surroundings and how much students can learn in return for giving legal advice to people who need it. If I had to say what left the greatest impression on me, I would say that it was working in the consultancies. Especially in the one in San Juan de Lurigancho, a really impoverished neighbourhood in Lima where they basically deal with affiliation and maintenance allowances for mothers in situations of vulnerability, and where they collaborate with the Taller de los Niños foundation.

Edu: As Marta was saying, I think the element that was most surprising about the whole project was the participation in the consultancies, especially the one in Sant Juan de Lurigancho. Interacting directly with vulnerable people and trying to find a solution to the problems they presented is a situation we’d never been in before, and I think that is what left the greatest impression on us.

“The element that was most surprising about the whole project was the participation in the consultancies”

Marta: Yes! We were lucky enough to be able to participate a lot in university life at the PUCP Law Faculty, which is undergoing major changes at the moment. In the second week we were already able to go to a meeting with the dean, professors, faculty members and students, held to debate the topic of gender-based harassment and violence on the placements and in the faculty itself. We were surprised at how non-hierarchical the meeting was and at the drive of students and faculty members alike to change things. What’s more, as a result, all the offices, including ours, took measures, and we were also able to participate in the monitoring of these tasks.

Edu: In general terms, very positive. Right from the beginning we were given an exceptional welcome and the content of the placement was appropriate for our abilities. They were able to really get the most out of us. Besides the academic part, I should also mention the experience of being in Lima, the trips we did to discover other areas of Peru, the friendships (including my friendship with Marta, as we didn’t know each other before the trip), etc. They were two really complete months. It’s hard to say how they could have been any better.

As regards the length, I think it was enough to be able to get a lot out of it, but, If I’m honest, you do end up “wanting more”. After the first few weeks of training to get to grips with the legal system, when we’d finally got the tools we needed to move onwards, the placement was coming to an end. So, I think it was enough, but it would have been great if it had been longer.

“Right from the beginning we were given an exceptional welcome and the content of the placement was appropriate for our abilities”

Marta: Like Edu says, the university, the work we did there, the feedback we received from all the fantastic and committed people that form part of the OARS… that was all incredible. It would have been a unique experience with that alone, but I think what I’ve taken from it goes beyond that. We visited every corner of Lima and as much of Peru as we could, and we met some amazing people. Our day-to-day was really crazy and marked by a sense of urgency, which was fantastic because I really do think we got the most we could out of it. I left feeling very happy.

“Our day-to-day was really crazy and marked by a sense of urgency”

Edu: Without a doubt. On a personal level it was one of the most enriching experiences I’ve ever had. The possibility of living for two months in another country, with so many different cultural and social elements, working with local people and putting knowledge into practice to have a positive impact on our host society changed how I see the world.

Marta: Totally. This was unquestionably an outstanding placement. But we’re taking away with us a lot more than that! To have first-hand experience of widespread corruption, male chauvinism, social inequalities, the rejection of difference; and to work with people that dedicate their lives to fighting against all that, teaches you so much. I think that the office where we worked is really committed to making a difference in these issues, and they’re doing it. I’d say that to have participated in a project of this nature will be useful for us in all aspects of our lives.

“I’d say that to have participated in a project of this nature will be useful for us in all aspects of our lives”

Edu: Well we had to undertake our tasks in a different legal system, so the first step was to learn about this new system in depth. Once we’d done that, the chance to work with real cases, follow them up, attend to people asking for help directly, prepare the claims and accompany those people to trials all helped to make the learning much more effective, not just in terms of our legal knowledge, but also in terms of the skills we need for our degrees and our future working lives.

Marta: Our placement was marked by an ongoing debate: on Peruvian and international law, social inclusion, the treatment of collectives like the LGTBIQ+ or people with disabilities, and all of this, all the time, from a gender-based perspective. That also surprised me a lot, more than anything because I wasn’t expecting it. For me, that was the most enriching aspect of the whole experience. 

“Our placement was marked by an ongoing debate. And all of this, all the time, from a gender-based perspective”

Edu: In general, I think that the concept of the Academic Office of Social Responsibility is interesting in itself. UPF promotes a diverse range of initiatives within this field at different levels, from governing bodies, the SACU, right up to the level of associations. However, I don’t think there is a structure in its own right with a philosophy similar to that of PUPC; a university that forms part of society from which you can learn, at the same time as it can (and perhaps should) offer a service to the same society that funds it.

In this regard, and thinking specifically in the area of law, the creation of a social responsibility office that provides legal aid to people who can’t afford it would be a great opportunity, both because of the benefit this would entail for society and the opportunity it would imply for young lawyers (masters students, PhD students, etc.) for the first-hand experience they would get of the world of law and legal advice. It would also be useful for students who, by volunteering, could have their first real contact with the legal system. I think that all the ideas and projects that make up the OARS and, particularly the consultancies, could be introduced at UPF.

“I think that all the ideas and projects that make up the OARS and, particularly the consultancies, could be introduced at UPF”

Edu: Lima is a very different city to Barcelona in every possible way, both for better and for worse. I don’t think anyone could live in that city for a few months without being affected by it. The traffic, the noise, the constant grey skies (we saw the sun three times throughout our entire stay there), public transport, etc. These are elements that you would imagine are negative, but which, in the end, interweave to create an attractive city in its own right, with iconic places such as Barranco, the old city centre or the Miraflores Jetty.

It’s a city of contrasts, with its social classes, its gastronomy and its people. At the end of the day, like all cities, you have to live there to really begin to understand it. As for the Peruvian society, I don’t think it can be talked about as one society. I think there are two “Perus”: Lima, on the one hand, and the rest of the country, known there as the “Provinces”, on the other. And in this dichotomy, there are also two very different societies, which are still in the process of discovering and getting to know one another.

“I don’t think anyone could live in Lima for a few months without being affected by it”

Video developed by the PUCP in which the two students of the UPF explain their experience