Regional meeting – Hub for Asia and Oceania
In an atmosphere of fraternity and joy, the representatives of the Asian universities from the Uniservitate programme held a Regional Meeting in Manila (Philippines) after the successful 4th Uniservitate Global Symposium in the second week of November.
The group visited two service-learning experiences at the Philippine National School for the Blind and the Tañada-Diokno School of Law; both provide tangible evidence of the service-learning effect on students who devote themselves to the community. The visitors then shared their updates and progress in the SL institutionalisation, monitoring and evaluation processes of the Uniservitate programme.
Uniservitate members in the Regional Meeting, after the IV Global Symposium in Manila, Philippines
The Interior Design students from La Salle University revamped the library at the Philippine National School for the Blind, a project that resulted in their winning the Uniservitate Award 2022. There, during the visit of the Uniservitate delegation, a blind student praised the renovations. He said he can find the publications on the shelves more easily and now moves around the redesigned spaces without getting lost or stumbling. Likewise, one of the recently graduated students appreciated how this experience enabled her to create her designs with diversity in mind.
Philippine National School for the Blind, beneficiary of one of the students from La Salle University a projects that resulted in their winning the Uniservitate Award 2022
In turn, the Tañada-Diokno School of Law bears the name of two graduates who played a prominent role against the dictator Marcos: Lorenzo Martinez Tañada and José Wright Diokno, two patriots, nationalists and lawyers who lived the ideal and value of the truth of the Lasallian charism in an exemplary way. A pedagogical approach that offers holistic training of future lawyers, in this case, with a strong ethical and spiritual commitment and the guidance of the poorest.
Four students described the service-learning experiences in this school of law; one of them said that, together with his classmates, “they felt that they could help the community with their legal expertise”. Mercy Pushpalatha Madurai, from India and a member of the Uniservitate Board, then remarked: “How good it would be if lawyers all over the world had training like this where they share their experience with those in need!”
Once the visit in Manila ended, the words of Andres Peregalli, Vice General Coordinator of Uniservitate, mirrors the depth of the week’s experience: “I have travelled to many schools and universities in the world and have met and worked with faculty members and researchers, but rarely have I experienced in a university a joyful and fraternal atmosphere like the one here at La Salle University in Manila. There is a profound institutional and individual spirituality that would be worthy of specific research […] because we are transforming institutions, helping transform people and ourselves, in the hands of God”.
