UDA helps migrants with educational program

As an opportunity to undertake and leave the streets, where she has had to sell peanuts and garbage bags, is what Johana Aguiar saw in "Educate without limits", a program developed by the University of Azuay with the support of the International Organization for Migrations.

The project arose when both institutions signed an agreement for the academy to be part of the support provided to people in situations of human mobility.

The idea, from the beginning, was to establish an educational program that, on the one hand, would certify migrants as experts in certain areas, and, on the other, would give them the opportunity to learn how to be entrepreneurs.

For this, the University of Azuay contacted the foundations and organizations that are related to people in a situation of mobility.

By word of mouth, and through social networks, migrants, mainly from Venezuela, learned about the educational project that made available the areas of automotive, electricity, beverage manufacturing, meat products, cocoa-based products, fruits and vegetables. and bread making. In total, the coordinators received 266 registrations, which were analyzed one by one to choose, in the end, 115 people. 30% of those chosen were from the city, while the rest was a population that migrated to Cuenca.

Once the participants were selected, for ten weeks, in the classrooms of the University of Azuay, the classes were held.

In this process, the organizers found endless stories and people who, despite having an academic background, did not have an opportunity to demonstrate their skills.

“What we wanted with 'Educate without limits' was that any person, without any limits, be part of the program, that they could study. Many of them did not believe that they were in a university because they did not think that at some point they would have an opportunity,” said María Fernanda Rosales, coordinator of the project.

Among those who did not believe they would have an opportunity within the academy was Johana Aguiar, who studied the production of cocoa products. When she found out through the migrant groups that the University of Azuay, at no cost, was going to carry out training for them, she did not hesitate to apply.

“For me it was an opportunity that I could not miss. I am a certified chemist in Venezuela, and when I signed up and found out that they had selected me, I was very excited because now I have more opportunities,” said Johana Aguiar.

After completing the program, which was closed with an exhibition of the products made by the migrants, she has more hope of starting a new working life, either in a formal job or a business that has been going around for her: selling her own chocolates in Cuenca.