From the 12th to the 14th of September, in our branch campus in Quito, representatives of pastoral departments of Salesian Institutions of Higher Education (IUS) from Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico held a meeting to discuss proposals for Salesian higher education. The meeting was presided by Mario Olmos, coordinator of the IUS, and Antonio Wardison from UNISAL, Sao Paulo. 

"IUS are present in 9 countries, the aim of this meeting is to analyze what the pastoral department means in IUS today, its concept, contents, methodologies and education. What's interesting is that we are working together on all this", said Father Marcelo Farfan, general coordinator of IUS. 

It is important to note that we are "pastoral" universities and not only universities that carry out pastoral activities; we want to change the idea that pastoral is simply a department. "When we talk about pastoral, we are talking about the university project. As salesians, we understand that pastoral activities are part of the institutional project. The activities seek to favor poor students, complement their education and curriculum", he said. 

Finally, he spoke about the importance of fulfilling the objectives the pastoral department has set for the entire university community. "The main person responsible for the pastoral activities is the president of the university", he said.

The meeting was attended by: Ademir Cwendrych, Wardison C. Silva, Ceila Lima de Souza, Genésio Zeferino da Silva, Slawomir Bronakowski y Maria da Conceição Cândida (Brazil); Gibraham Pérez and Juan Simón Zárate (Mexico); Héctor Rausch (Argentina), Roberto Alexander Damas and Mario Olmos (El Salvador), Nelson López and Verónica Flores (Bolivia), María José Valdés (Guatemala); Daniel Herrera, Xavier Merchán and Jaime Chela (Ecuador).