The Service of International Relations and Cooperation at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) put on a new edition of Snippets of Student Volunteering to raise awareness about the benefits of volunteering. This year’s event brought together more than 60 psychology students and focused on community intervention for socially vulnerable individuals.

This activity was inaugurated by Yolanda Quiles, Associate Dean of Projection, Equality and Diversity at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, as well as the organizer of Psychology Week, within which this activity is framed. Other Snippets participants included Luis Torrús, a technician at the UMH Service of International Relations and Cooperation, plus representatives from three local NGOs: María Prió, from Elche Acoge; Alejandro Ruiz and Cristina Enrique, from Cáritas Elche; and Alba Pérez-Adsuar, from DASYC.

Torrús informed the students about volunteer-related initiatives promoted by SERIC, including the Rwanda volunteering program, as well as cooperation workshops organized by other public Valencian Community universities. He also raised awareness among the attendees about what it means to be a volunteer, how volunteering is regulated, and the different types of volunteering that exist. Likewise, he emphasized and told the students about the commitment required when collaborating in any of these initiatives.

For her part, Prió, head of employment, business, and volunteering at Elche Acoge, outlined the organization’s main lines of action and the vulnerable situations of the people they serve. Ruiz, the coordinator at Cáritas Elche, and Enrique, a psychologist at the NGO’s reception center, then took the floor and provided more details about the severe poverty of the people who go there, and how they deal with the psychosocial problems of the population that arrives at the center.

To conclude, Pérez-Adsuar, from DASYC, discussed the possibilities of volunteering where training people is one of the main values of the organization’s efforts. This awareness-raising day provided an opportunity for the 60+ students who were present to address their concerns in greater depth and discover new ways of helping the most vulnerable social groups within our society.