Advances and Challenges

By: Juan Polanco Hernández

URACCAN, represented by Dr. Alta Hooker, rector of this institution and Dr. William Flores, Program Officer; participated in the International Seminar on African and Afro-Descendant Mobility: Advances and Challenges, through the Plenary Bureau: Approaches and Experiences of African and Afro-Descendant Academic Mobility.

This activity was carried out in Huelva, Spain, within the framework of the International Decade of African Descent and the 2030 agenda, recognizing education throughout life, as a real and proven channel of upward social mobility of people and population groups, proposing to advance the knowledge and design of tools and articulation mechanisms necessary for the promotion of equal access of African and Afro-descendant populations.

A look from URACCAN

During her speech at the plenary table, Dr Hooker, rector of URACCAN, took a tour of URACCAN's history and its processes of inclusion and respect, emphasizing work with the coastal population and the indigenous, Afro-descendant and mixed-race peoples of the Caribbean Coast. "When the university started, there were about 506 students because there was little confidence in college, last year we closed with 8,938 students, of whom 514, or 5.35% are Afro-descendants," she said.

Likewise, the magnificent rector of URACCAN, highlighted the processes of harmonization and articulation within the institution, working and weaving interculturality with peoples over 25 years of institutional work, "We have a teaching plant of 108 teachers and of those 27% are indigenous, 7% Afro-descendant and 66% mixed-race. Here it is important to say that there are selection criteria, the more of our students are women, women in our territories are more present, they are strong, then we work and we are characterized by interculturality, but not from the floklore, from the way we see the world, from our way of understanding the world and where culture is the basis of our development , that's a big challenge that we have as a university," he said

Inclusive cooperation

It should be noted that this international seminar is part of the joint work by proposals for progress in the processes of transcontinental mobility and the transfer of know-how, promoting mutual cooperation for common development and well-being, which prevents and reduces unwanted mobility processes that violate and jeopardize the physical, spiritual and collective integrity of people of African descent.