Rome’s University of the Sacred Heart and the Catholic University of Central Africa sign a partnership agreement on research, training, and healthcare.
“The African health reality is very complex and difficult. In Cameroon, good healthcare is very rare. This agreement could really save our country.”
These are the words of Archbishop Jean Mbarga of the Archdiocese of Yaoundé, Cameroon, the Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University of Central Africa.
He was commenting on the signing of an agreement between the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and the Agostino Gemelli University Policlinic, both in Rome, and the Catholic University of Central Africa in Cameroon.
The agreement involves an exchange of teaching and assistance experiences, collaboration on joint research projects, the supply of equipment and materials, ongoing training activities for teachers, administrative and technical staff, and opportunities for the exchange of teachers and students.
Mutually enriching arrangement
“As a Catholic University,” said Professor Cocconcelli of Rome’s Catholic University, “we have an obligation to make an impact on society.”
“This agreement,” commented Bishop Claudio Giuliodori, General Ecclesiastical Assistant for the Catholic University, “enriches the already very broad platform of our Athenaeum. Father Agostino Gemelli, one of the promoters of the International Federation of Catholic Universities… already sensed that the strength of a Catholic University relies above all on its ‘catholicity’, that is, its universality, i.e., its worldwide network.”
And, he added, “with this new project, as with any international collaboration, we are supporting a developing entity, but at the same time ourselves receiving a lot, especially in terms of training our students.”