Since 1992, students had the option of working at volunteer activities accompanying the elderly, the sick or providing school support. But this possibility was not open to the rest of the university community, people who, with their life experience and professional knowledge, had much to contribute. That is the reason why the project Tantaka arose, to accommodate the entire university community and even those people who have no direct relationship with the University of Navarra and want to collaborate in one of the many projects.

When poverty and crisis were just around the corner, Tantaka was born with the purpose of "helping those who help", as a visible expression of Christian identity, putting itself at the disposal of the many people already working for the most needy and offering them the time of the foundation and of the students and volunteer teachers. Time was the factor core topic, it is what the nearly 15,000 people who make up the university community have in common: "time and the desire to help".

There are about 100 social organizations in Navarra, a land of solidarity. The work of Sofía Collantes, founder of Tantaka, was to visit all the organizations working in the region during these first years and identify their needs. Tantaka offered 'qualified time', making available to the organizations the specialized knowledge -in pedagogy, Economics, law, medicine, communication, etc.- brought by students, teachers and workers of the University of Navarra. In this first year of work alone, we collaborated with more than 50 social organizations in Navarra and had almost 3,000 volunteers.

During the first 10 years of Tantaka, nearly 8,000 people from campus in Pamplona, San Sebastian and Madrid have put their time and knowledge at the service of different social institutions. Drop by drop, the entire university community has generated a positive impact in Tantaka's different areas of action, nationally and internationally.