The FLY program is back and applications are now open for all Portuguese Catholic University students who wish to undertake an international volunteering experience. This program offers the opportunity to participate in more than 30 volunteering and service-learning projects in 14 countries and aims to raise awareness among university communities of the issues of migration, social exclusion and community care.
“The positive impact of the volunteer program on the migrant community was unparalleled.”
Francisco Cabral, a student at the Faculty of Human Sciences in Lisbon, recalls his experience in Melilla working with migrants: “The positive impact of the volunteer program on the migrant community was unparalleled. The young people showed an enormous desire to learn and integrate. All the affection and fraternity we gave them was generously reciprocated. All of us, volunteers and migrants, grew together.”
Catarina Almeida, a student at the Faculty of Law - Porto School and a participant in FLY 2024 in Brazil, says that: “One of the moments that struck me most from the whole experience was when the priest, during Mass, told us that, before, they used to ask the children what they would like to do when they grew up and they would answer that they wanted to be fishermen and farmers. And now, after starting this volunteering, when they are asked exactly the same question, they say that their biggest dream is to be a university student.” “I left Vazantes with a full heart: full of joy, a sense of mission accomplished, friends, gratitude and, above all, full of nostalgia,” he concludes.
How to take part in FLY 2025?
To help students learn more about the program, the Catholic University will hold three information sessions: one in person on February 18 and two more online on February 20 and 24. The selected students will have to take part in inter-university training and meetings with volunteer organizations.
FLY is promoted by the Jesuit Universities of Spain - Comillas (Madrid), Deusto (Bilbao) and ESADE (Barcelona), Loyola (Andalusia), IQS (Barcelona) - and the Portuguese Catholic University. Each of these institutions is presenting volunteer and/or service-learning projects in their country of origin, in order to receive and invite students from the partner universities at the same time.
