Welcome to the latest season of Global Pen Friends, a writing project about the UN Sustainable Development Goals between students from India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Belgium. If you’re reading this something has sparked your curiosity to know what Global Pen Friends is all about. You came to the right address, because this article will guide you through the project, and the organization behind it!
My name is Manon, and for a third year in a row I’m the coordinator of the Global Pen Friends project at USOS, the University Foundation for Development Cooperation, an association based at the University of Antwerp. Let me tell you a little bit about what we do!
About USOS
USOS celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, that’s four decades of connecting communities at the University of Antwerp and across the world. Since the foundation in1985, students, professors, researchers, partner organizations, and volunteers have come together around a shared commitment to global solidarity, academic exchange, and social justice.
Rooted in a unique collaboration between the University of Antwerp and the Flemish-Dutch Region of the Jesuit Order, USOS supports the university in becoming a globally engaged institution. We do this through two main strategies:
- Global citizenship education, offering critical learning experiences for students, and
- Promoting partnerships with and between institutions in the Global South, with reciprocity, trust, and mutual understanding at the core.
Students and coordinators from Antwerp and Bukavu doing an exchange project in Tanzania, 2025.
Every year USOS organizes a one-month exchange program together with one of our partners. Sometimes as a host, here in Antwerp and sometimes in city of the partner university. In September 2024 USOS received a group of Congolese and Moroccan students in Antwerp with the help of a wonderful team of local host families and a group of UAntwerp students. This time those same Antwerp students traveled to Arusha, Tanzania, to meet up with the Congolese students for part two of the two-way exchange. Our Instagram page shows a few videos and photos of this exchange in case you would like to have an idea of the project.
In 2025 we also hosted a successful study exchange with the ISTT Lab; short for: Interdisciplinary Studio for Territories in Transition, an interdisciplinary research unit at the Faculty of Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp bringing students from Suriname and Brazil to Antwerp and vice versa. They have a wonderful website showing the different research projects. https://www.istt.be/en/projects
Images of a city mapping research project in Borgerhout with students from Suriname and Brazil, 2025.
On campus, we created spaces for dialogue around media and global issues; like our powerful discussion evening on the television documentary The Afro-European and a film screening of Made in Ethiopia in collaboration with 11.11.11. Pictures on our Instagram.
Panel discussion about the television series ‘Afro-Europeaan’ at the University of Antwerp, 2025
Aside all these wonderful in-person encounters, we also have our online project: Global Pen Friends.
So, what is Global Pen Friends?
Global Pen Friends is a letter exchange project between students from nine universities in India, Suriname, Nicaragua, Brazil, DR Congo, Morocco, and Belgium. Every year different universities participate. Students that get selected are matched with a Pen Friend and invited to exchange digital letters on topics related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This year marks the 4th edition of the project, and every year, it’s really exciting to see the creativity, and openness that students bring to the conversations. The exchanges are a great mix of personal stories and perspectives on important Development Topics. One of last year’s participants described it beautifully:
“The project gave me a renewed interest in writing and corresponding; something I hadn’t done since high school. It allowed us not only to discuss important issues in society with a lot of freedom but also to understand the way of thinking and seeing the world of our pen friends who live in other parts of the world.”
Nabami and Ananya, two Pen Friends that had the opportunity to meet each other in real life in 2024. Full article here.
Meet This Year’s Pen Friends
We are so happy to introduce the twelve brilliant students who took part in this year’s edition of Global Pen Friends:
- Vaibhav Vishal – Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), India
- Margaux Swinnen – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
- Lionel Tah Tabeng – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
- Shalini Ranjan – Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), India
- Manasseh Ophalfens – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
- Priyanka Kumari – Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), India
- Hawa Muhemeri Lucie – Université Catholique de Bukavu (UCB), DR Congo
- Zoé Poreba – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
- Naduni Abeywardana – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
- Joseph Mukasa – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
- Divine Igega Mulemangabo – Université Catholique de Bukavu (UCB), DR Congo
- Tessi – Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium
They come from different parts of the world, speak different languages, and carry different experiences, but they have come together to write, reflect, and share with honesty and care.
Global Pen Friends 2025
A Final Word
As coordinator, this project is close to my heart, in a world of fast and visual content, it’s refreshing to see students caring for a slower-paced heartfelt exchange. Thank you to all the students who participated and opened up their minds and hearts.
I hope that, as a reader, you’ll enjoy the upcoming blog posts, feel inspired by the exchanges, and perhaps even reflect on the SDGs from a new perspective.
With gratitude,
Manon
Coordinator, Global Pen Friends – USOS