Experiencias, anécdotas y reflexiones de vida. Proyecto Educativo y de Cooperación Internacional al Desarrollo UBU-Bangalore de la Universidad de Burgos (España)

The book “Experiences, anecdotes and reflections of life in the Educational and International Development Cooperation Project UBU-Bangalore of University of Burgos (Spain). 2004-2025” wants to capture the gaze of its author, Jesús María Álvarez Martínez, throughout twenty editions of this International Cooperation Project which began in 2004 in Puyo (Ecuador) and since 2007 it has been developing in the city of Bangalore (India).
This project was promoted by Jesús María Álvarez Martínez and Rafael Calvo de León, professors at the University of Burgos. The initiative started in 2004 with the “UBU-Puyo Project”, developed during three consecutive summers in the Amazonian city of Puyo (Ecuador), where a group of university volunteers collaborated with the Encuentro Project, an entity dependent on the Apostolic Vicariate that cared for street children.
In 2007 the project moved to Bangalore (India). There collaboration with the NEST (Nurturing and Educating for Social Transformation) Project center began, which is managed by the FIDES India Society Association, founded by missionaries of Saint Francis de Sales. This organization works in key areas for development, such as education, rural intervention and care in emergency situations. The NEST Project, dedicated to the reception and protection of street children, has become since then the nucleus of the “UBU-Bangalore Educational and International Development Cooperation Project”.
Since that year, and uninterruptedly, except for the forced pause during the pandemic in the years 2020 and 2021, annual one-month stays have been carried out combining learning and service. On one hand, these projects promote the personal, cultural, professional and spiritual training of the students at University of Burgos. On the other hand, they contribute to the development of vulnerable populations, especially street children in India. The promoters of the project conceived this experience as an opportunity for the students and professors to live a real commitment with the international cooperation. To guarantee its continuity and successful management, in 2010 Limes Development Project Association was founded.
Throughout the twenty editions held until 2025, one hundred and thirty students and seven professors have participated. In 2019 Jesús María Álvarez and Rafael Calvo de León published a book titled “What is not given is lost”, which included the work developed up to that point as well as the personal experiences of the participants.
This new book does not seek to repeat this content, but rather to offer a series of anecdotes, reflections and daily experiences which allows to get to the heart of the human dimension of the project. The author, who has personally coordinated sixteen editions on the ground, complements his story with contributions of other members of the team in the four years in which the author did not travel with the group.
The final purpose of this book is to offer the reader a deep look at the culture, people and values (also religious values) which emerge in the encounter of the diverse realities. These experiences invite us to stop, observe and rediscovered shared humanity, feeding hope and reaffirming the validity of the essential values that sustain coexistence and commitment to solidarity.