2020_08_11_CIE_sanchez_alcazar

Ana Sánchez Alcázar, a native of Murcia, has finished this year the second course of the Double Degree in Biology and Environmental Sciences. At 20 years old, she combines her programs of study with volunteer activities activities.

The young woman from Murcia has helped during the confinement to Mónika, a Romanian girl of 10 years old -based in Asturias- who attends 5th grade of primary school, in the tasks of high school and solving doubts in specific subjects such as Mathematics, language Spanish, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, English and Education Physics. "We conduct the support classes by WhatsApp video call, which is simpler and more accessible for her, usually for two hours, three times a week, or sometimes more as needed."

This has been an initiative staff of Ana who has been able to combine her programs of study of degree program with this activity. The future biologist emphasizes that in this pandemic solidarity has been core topic so that many families have been able to move forward. "There are many children full of curiosity and eager to learn, and the lack of resources or the little time their parents can dedicate to them is not a reason for them to lose this motivation".

Although at first she was skeptical about the online activity of volunteer activities Ana Sanchez values positively the result seeing the evolution of Mónika in her programs of study. "The volunteer activities goes far beyond school reinforcement, as it involves listening and understanding what Mónika misses the most, such as going to school, her fears in the face of the current health crisis, and motivating her to continue working".

The volunteer activities is an activity that accompanies university students like Ana, who dedicate their time to helping people, developing projects, or fighting for specific causes. The student from Murcia has been in recent years linked to social projects -helping children who need school reinforcement or in social exclusion, accompanying the elderly, as well as other projects related to the environment- and stresses that "being at university involves reaching a training as varied and humanist as possible and volunteer activities is one of the ways to achieve this".

The activity of volunteer activities during the confinement allowed more than 240 students and professionals of the University of Navarra to undertake different solidarity initiatives, including the accompaniment of the elderly and the sick, the production of sanitary and hygienic material, support in school tasks, as well as the purchase and distribution of food.