"I take with me anecdotes that I will remember for the rest of my life, stories I never thought I would hear and lives I never thought I would know," explains Maria Ramos, a fourth-year student at ISSA School of Management Assistants, after her volunteer activities in Ethiopia with the Missionaries of Charity. There, in the city of Dire Dawa, she has been with twenty other students for the whole month of July, in what was her last summer with three months of vacation.

In the mornings they helped the Missionaries in the care of their patients: they cleaned the rooms of the sick, cleaned them, treated wounds and helped in the laundry. In the afternoons they taught class English and mathematics to the patients, played with the children and kept the adults company.

With the experience on his back he assures that thanks to them he has really known what service to others is: "I would not like to say that it has been a wonderful trip, because we have also suffered a lot, we have taken care of patients who the next day were not there, the living conditions of the center are very precarious and many could not fight against their disease. However, thanks to this trip, I have lived a much healthier life than most of us could have in our country, a life without whims or comforts, without technology, with basic but sufficient hygiene conditions. Food was minimal, but we didn't need more than that.

She is aware that she became more concerned about the welfare of her patients and colleagues than her own, yet she states with aplomb that she has taken away much more than she could have left there: "I have received a lot of affection, real affection without expecting anything in return".