22nd International Solidarity Service-Learning Week
Delegations from 24 countries participated in the Uniservitate-USAL Day.
As part of the 22nd Solidarity Service-Learning Week, which took place from 19th to 23rd August, in Buenos Aires, delegations from Catholic higher education institutions in 24 countries across five continents belonging to the Uniservitate (Porticus/CLAYSS) programme dedicated a day to mutual enrichment in the spirit of Pope Francis.
The Uniservitate Meeting 2025 took place on Tuesday, 19th August. It was organized by CLAYSS and the Universidad del Salvador (USAL), the university where Pope Francis graduated and taught. Daniela Santillán, Director of University Social Responsibility Department, and Mariana Bricchi, Secretary of Extension at USAL, worked together to prepare an activity for the occasion that combined tourist and cultural interest with the religious expertise of many participants: a guided tour by tourism students of iconic places in the life of the former archbishop of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires before he was appointed Pope. The tour included visits to the Catedral Metropolitana [Metropolitan Cathedral Buenos Aires] and the Basílica San José de Flores [Basilica of San José de Flores], preserving the confessional where the young Bergoglio found his priestly vocation. Among other places, participants visited his birthplace, primary school, and the park where he played as a child.
The ‘Pope’s tour’ began at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, See of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
“I encourage you to do what he did,” María Rosa Tapia, General Coordinator of Uniservitate, later told the participants, recalling Pope Francis’s belief that education can change the world. She added, “Each one of us can help to change the world, which so desperately needs it.”
The tour also included the Basilica of San José de Flores, where Jorge Mario Bergoglio discovered his priestly vocation.
The Uniservitate delegations left their intentions at the foot of the image of Saint Joseph Asleep,
presented by Pope Francis to the Basilica in 2023, on the 10th anniversary of his pontificate.
After sharing lunch, the group visited the USAL Faculty of Medicine, where Romina Cavalli, the Vice-Rector of Academic Affairs, welcomed them. They enjoyed a presentation on the experiences carried out by the university, which demonstrated how knowledge can be applied to help communities and have mutual benefits. This is the case of the initiative “Colegio Itatí – Jornadas de Asistencia Técnica” [Itatí School – Technical Assistance Workshops], developed in 2023 by students and professors from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the Nuestra Señora de Itatí, a parochial school in San Miguel, Buenos Aires, and the Environmental Education project “Huertas Urbanas Agroecológicas” [Agroecological Urban Gardens] carried out in the Corrientes province by students from the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences at the school “Instituto Vuelta del Ombú”, the Centro de Desarrollo Integral y Prevención de la Desnutrición Infantil Mitaí [Mitaí Centre for Integral Development and Prevention of Child Malnutrition] and the Centro de Día Virasoro [Virasoro Day Centre]. They also shared the lessons learned and challenges faced in the course “USR and University Extension: Service-Learning for Common Good”. It is a course on the SSL methodology, aimed at professors and university staff, taught by the Directorate of University Social Responsibility and the Secretariat of Extension since 2024.
Maria Rosa Tapia and Andrés Peregalli (coordinator and vice-coordinator of the Uniservitate programme, together with Romina Cavalli (academic vice-chancellor of USAL),
Daniela Santillán (director of University Social Responsibility at USAL), Mariana Bricchi (secretary of Outreach at USAL) and the USAL Communications team.
The day ended with a Mass in the century-old Church of El Salvador presided over by Father Juan José Milano, alongside the rector of that church, Salvador Verón, and five priests belonging to the Uniservitate delegations: Dennis Etriga, Victor Mbuthia, and Stephano Kamwaza from Africa, and Wojciech Surmiak and Dawid Ledwon from Poland.
Six international experts who comprise the Academic Sounding Board of the programme were among the more than 80 participants at the Uniservitate 2025 Meeting: Barbara McCrabb from the United States; Arantzazu Martínez and Miquel Martínez from Spain; Beatrix Bowman from South Africa; Leticia López from Mexico; and Daniela Gargantini from Argentina.
Exchange between participants on the experiences of University Social Responsibility carried out by USAL.
On Wednesday, 20th August, Uniservitate members participated in the VII Service-Learning Researchers’ Symposium, presenting research papers and joining in panels and workshops. On Thursday, 21st and Friday, 22nd, they participated in the 28th International Solidarity Service-Learning Conference.
Finally, on Saturday morning, 23rd, around thirty foreign delegates visited the Carlos Mugica neighbourhood (formerly Villa 31), alongside students from the USAL Faculty of Engineering who are participating in the “TIC Solidario [Solidarity ITC]” project promoted by the University Social Responsibility Department in collaboration with the Voces de Barro Civil Association. The director of the Bachelor’s Degree programmes in Information Systems and Computer Engineering, Germán Buchniv, described the project developed by a library and a community digital space to offer secure access to educational and cultural content, thus promoting meaningful learning. There, faculty members and researchers shared a warm moment playing with children from the community who also participated in an art workshop, taught by volunteers from Voces de Barro, where they designed works that were then digitized and included in the online library.
The discussions, presentations, and personal meetings during those days helped to strengthen the relationships between the Uniservitate members. Uniservitate is a programme that, in just five years, has grown into a global network that is increasingly becoming a fraternal community, whose main characteristic is unity in diversity.
