On 12 November, UIC Barcelona signed a collaboration agreement with the Harambee Project whereby it undertook to host one of the recipients of the Guadalupe Scholarship supported by Harambee, aimed at African researchers. The Nigerian researcher Ijeoma Uzoma, who has been granted one of these scholarships, will undertake her research stay at UIC Barcelona in March 2020.   

Harambee is a solidarity network that promotes educational initiatives in and about Africa through development projects in the Sub-Saharan area and awareness-raising activities in the rest of the world, with the aim of disseminating the values, skills and future potential of the African continent. Harambee, which means “all together for one” in Swahili, was founded in Rome on 6 October 2002 on the occasion of the canonisation of Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer by Pope John Paul II.

Harambee’s Guadalupe Scholarships Project for African scientists grants 100 scholarships over ten years so that both scientists with a high academic level and young graduates from Sub-Saharan Africa who are just starting out on their research career can expand their knowledge and discover new fields of research so they can effectively contribute to their countries’ development.

Harambee’s Guadalupe Scholarship Project was launched for the first time in May 2019, coinciding with the beatification of the Spanish scientist Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri, in whose memory this project has been developed. Fourteen female African scientists applied for the scholarship at this first call, of whom ten were selected, and six of the fellows have already been assigned a research centre to undertake their scholarship. One of them is Ijeoma Uzoma, a haematology doctor at the Science Laboratory of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology at the Enugu Campus of the University of Nsukka in Nigeria, who will be coming to do research work at UIC Barcelona in March 2020.

Ijeoma Uzoma graduated in Medical Laboratory Sciences at the Ambrose Alli University in Ekpoma, Nigeria, specialising in Haematology and Immunology at the University of Nsukka and achieving her doctorate at the University of Lagos, Akoka. She is currently a member of the National Council of Medical Sciences of Nigeria, the African Society of Human Genetics, and the International Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia Foundation. She has won numerous awards and distinctions. This year she has also been distinguished with the UICC Technical Fellowship Award.

The signing of the agreement on 12 November was attended by the Rector of UIC Barcelona, Xavier Gil, and the president of Harambee, Antonio Hernández Deus, along with other members of the Governing Board, Ignacio Tarazaga, Raquel Rodríguez and Mª Pilar Cuesta. UIC Barcelona was also represented by the Vice-rector for the University Community, Belén Zárate, and the General Secretary, Belén Castro.