European University Volunteering: Católica students take part in training

The European university volunteering training meeting, in which 9 students from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa participated, took place on March 25-26 in Orduña, Bilbao. 

Teamwork, conflict management, volunteering in the real world and transformative volunteering, emotion management and mindfulness were some of the themes of the training sessions.

For two days, students from the Universidade Católica headed to Bilbao to participate in a training event of the European volunteering programme Fly, which will take place in the summer of 2023, and which promotes exchange and learning experiences in the field. Around 125 volunteers participated in the event. Seven student volunteers from Porto and two from Braga attended from the Universidade Católica.

For Mafalda Sá, student of the Degree in Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, "this weekend of Fly Training was an incredible experience, which completed me as a volunteer and also as a person".

During the meeting, there were several moments that allowed an understanding of the teams, the processes and the project. At the end, all volunteers were challenged to write a letter to their "future volunteer self", recording how they feel about the experience they are about to undertake.

Towards Bilbao, Seville and Bosnia

The Fly volunteering programme has the primary purpose of strengthening the commitment of partner universities to sustainable development and raising awareness among university communities about the problems arising from inequality and injustice. This summer, Universidade Católica's student volunteers will participate in two projects in Spain and one in Bosnia. In Bilbao, with children and teenagers in vulnerable situations, in Seville with adults with intellectual disabilities and in Bihac with refugee migrants.

Isabel Madureira, a law student from the Porto School of the Faculty of Law, shares that "it was gratifying to live the experience and share it with so many young people who want to distribute love to others. The student also refers that the activities promoted during the training "were key to solidify the commitment as a volunteer and to understand how this role begins and ends" and highlights the "resilience" and "kindness" that characterizes the Católica students who were selected for the Fly.

"Helping others and making a difference in the world" is what moves Mafalda Sá to participate in this programme that will allow her to "leave her comfort zone and grab an opportunity for growth and learning." For the psychology student, "it was an intense weekend where I met wonderful people who, like me, want to go further and be a voice for positive change."

Coordinated by the University of Comillas (Madrid), the Fly 2023 programme brings together, besides the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, the Universities of Deusto (Bilbao), ESADE (Barcelona), Loyola (Andalusia), LUMSA (Rome, Italy) and Mateja Bela (Banská Bystrica, Slovakia).  Each of the institutions involved presents volunteering and/or service-learning projects in their home country, with the possibility of hosting students as well as sending students to projects at other partner universities.