The Catholic University of Braga, in collaboration with Casa do Professor, participated in the closing ceremony of the European project “Language Buddy – Supporting language learning of migrant children and young adults through language buddies,” which took place on September 9 in Thessaloniki, Greece.
The initiative, co-funded by the European Union through the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF), brought together the project partners at the University of Macedonia in the morning for a final review of the activities carried out, a sharing of the main results, and a joint reflection on the challenges and possibilities for continuing the buddy system model.
In the afternoon, the Final Conference provided an opportunity to present the implementation experiences in the various participating countries. Casa do Professor presented the Portuguese experience and the results of the pilot project carried out in Portugal, developed in collaboration with the Portuguese Catholic University.
A partnership to promote inclusion and intercultural understanding
In the Portuguese context, the Portuguese Catholic University played a key role in training and supervising the university students who participated in the project as mentors. Through this preparation, the students were equipped to develop an intercultural approach centered on the needs and characteristics of the young people they mentored.
In conjunction with this work, Casa do Professor provided direct support to the mentees, maintaining a close relationship with the young people and their teachers, fostering their involvement, and monitoring their well-being throughout the project’s implementation.
This integration of training, supervision, and support made it possible to create a mentoring experience tailored to the participants’ needs, while simultaneously promoting language learning, intercultural understanding, and the building of relationships among young people from different backgrounds.
The results achieved in the Portuguese pilot highlight the positive impact of the initiative, with 50 mentor-mentee pairs and a total of 813 mentoring sessions conducted. Satisfaction levels were also high, with an average rating of 8.0 out of 10 from mentors and 8.6 out of 10 from mentees. All participants stated that they would recommend the program.
In addition to the quantitative results, participants highlighted various benefits resulting from the experience. Mentees reported increased confidence, reduced shyness, and the opportunity to share their culture, while mentors emphasized the development of empathy, active listening, and personal growth.
The Language Buddy project thus demonstrated the potential of mentoring as a tool for learning and inclusion, showing that language learning can also contribute to building relationships, valuing cultural diversity, and strengthening the integration of migrant children and youth.
The Portuguese Catholic University’s participation in this European project reinforces its commitment to cooperation, pedagogical innovation, and the promotion of educational practices that value interculturalism and contribute to building more inclusive communities.
