The Vice Rectorate for International Relations at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) has inaugurated a classroom that is to be used by Elche volunteers of all kinds. This classroom, named ‘Joseph Wresinski-Fourth World,’ to honor the creator of that concept, was inaugurated following the completion of the Volunteer Promotion Workshops XVII. This space is located in the Torreblanca Building on the Elche Campus.

The inauguration ceremony meant to publicize a meeting place for local associations that are dedicated to volunteering. Attending the ceremony included Vice Rector for International Relations, Vicente Micol Molina; Director of Development Cooperation and Volunteerism, Juan José Ballesta Payá; and the Autonomous Secretary of Cooperation and Democratic Quality of the Generalitat Valenciana, Toñi Serna Serrano, among others.

Vice Rector, Vicente Micol, thanked the local entities for their collaboration and announced, “this classroom will serve to bring the university closer to all groups that perform volunteering efforts in the Elche area.” For her part, Autonomous Secretary, Toñi Serna, pointed out that “the UMH is a benchmark in the field of development cooperation, both internationally and locally, and the work that it carries out with area groups, which work by helping people from the surrounding areas, is an example for all public universities from the Valencian territory to follow.”

The term, Fourth World, refers to the different types of poverty that exist in one’s immediate surroundings. In the field of cooperation, it refers to the third-world conditions that are found within the surroundings of cities or the richest countries on occasion. This classroom is dedicated to the French priest, Joseph Wresinski, precursor of this cooperative work and the individual who coined the term ‘Fourth World.’ Wresinski helped those most in need in the suburbs of Paris in the mid-20th century.