The URJC and the Esther Koplowitz Foundation promote "taking care of the defenseless"

The agreement signed between both institutions aims to raise awareness in the university community about a characteristic of European culture, related to giving protection to the most vulnerable people.

Irene Vega

The project "University and civic leadership: preserving fragility", promoted by the Rey Juan Carlos University and the Esther Koplowitz Foundation, will launch theoretical actions during the next academic year, such as congresses, courses and conferences, as well as practices to provide training students on various areas related to the need to promote support channels for the most vulnerable people in our society. “A characteristic feature of European culture has to do with the protection of those who cannot be protected, due to their age, illness or birth. Taking care of the defenseless is a differentiating feature of our culture”, emphasizes Aranzazu Hervás, director of the project and professor in the area of Didactics and School Organization.

During the 2022/2023 academic year, different actions will take place that will begin in September with training sessions, which will address from various fields the need for young people not only to preserve the fragile, but also to encourage them to have initiatives that promote this idea.

In addition to these first theoretical sessions, starting in October a volunteer program will be launched so that students can learn first-hand about different realities such as loneliness and intellectual disability. “Twice a month a group of students will go to a nursing home or a center for people with intellectual disabilities to talk with them or carry out some type of activity that is adapted to the specific needs of the different users. In this way, students will find the right context to get to know in depth the values of humanity and experience that exist in these people, but also the natural development -sometimes, for example, cognitive deterioration- of life", explains the professor at the URJC.

Finally, in the months of May and June 2023, the educational community will be encouraged to carry out studies based on the scientific method on the need to open protection camps for the most vulnerable people.

instrument design

Throughout the execution period of this project, the team of professors and researchers that will participate in it will carry out the development of a tool to be able to design and establish the bases of future research projects.

In order to develop these instruments, the collaboration of the students who volunteer through questionnaires and interviews freely and anonymously will be counted on.