Uniservitate's international delegation visits the service-learning project of the Margarita Barrientos Foundation

Around 50 students, educators and researchers from universities in 20 countries that are members of the global Uniservitate network visited the Margarita Barrientos Foundation in Villa Soldati as part of the 20th International Service-Learning Week, hosted by CLAYSS in late August.
In the Los Piletones neighbourhood, during a meeting in the building that used to be Margarita Barrientos' home, where today there is a soup kitchen and a kindergarten, the international delegation learnt about a service-learning project on disease prevention and animal care that the University of Buenos Aires (UBA, in its acronym in Spanish)  has been carrying out there since 2006.
Marcela Martínez Vivot, director of the interdisciplinary project "One World, One Health", and three veterinarians —who learned about the project as students and continue today as volunteers— shared their experiences and objectives with the foreign visitors.
"I saw a sign that said: 'If you want to learn how to vaccinate, sign up here'," said Laura Gramajo, explaining the origin of her commitment after so many years. She added that students need to participate in experiences like these because "they provide us with a way of speaking, a language, we don't have at university," and service-learning is the bridge between the two languages.
The project involves over 20 chairs from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and more than 10 UBA degree courses, including psychology, anthropology, social communication, art, agronomy, graphic design, fashion design, dentistry and sociology. Students participate through supervised pre-professional internships, a workshop of the Rural and Urban Sociology course or as volunteers. Students participate through supervised pre-professional internships, a workshop of the Rural and Urban Sociology course or as volunteers.
Marcela Vivot shared some activities carried out by students from different degrees: Thanks to a study by psychology students, the character Super-vet was born in a magazine produced by communication students, wearing a "costume" designed by fashion design students; the Architecture students created a dice to "play" and learn about personal and animal care.
Vivot said that the aim is to improve the health and well-being of Villa Soldati community members through prevention, starting with kids. The work with university students focuses on fostering pro-social skills, values and attitudes. 
In addition to the agreement with the Margarita Barrientos Foundation, the "One World, One Health" project works with the Luis Pasteur Zoonosis Institute, INTA, ANMAT and other institutions. 
Bernard Luwerekera, a faculty member at the University of Kisubi in Uganda, was surprised by the visit and impressed by their daily work: "This is interesting because they could identify the problem and address it properly", he said. 
More information and photos: https://www.uniservitate.org/en/2023/08/22/un-mundo-una-salud-aprendizaje-servicio-solidario-en-la-fundacion-margarita-barrientos/