{"id":1715,"date":"2025-08-03T16:45:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/global-pen-friends\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:38:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:38:40","slug":"aboutglobalpenfriends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/global-pen-friends\/aboutglobalpenfriends\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn all about Global Pen Friends and the organization behind the project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\u2019re 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!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Manon, and for a third year in a row I\u2019m the coordinator of the Global Pen Friends project at USOS<\/strong>, 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!
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About USOS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

USOS<\/a> celebrates its 40th anniversary<\/strong> this year<\/a>, that\u2019s four decades of connecting communities\u00a0at 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rooted in a unique collaboration between the University of Antwerp<\/strong> and the Flemish-Dutch Region of the Jesuit Order<\/strong>, USOS supports the university in becoming a globally engaged institution. We do this through two main strategies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Global citizenship education<\/strong>, offering critical learning experiences for students, and
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  2. Promoting partnerships with and between institutions in the Global South<\/strong>, with reciprocity, trust, and mutual understanding at the core.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

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    Students and coordinators from Antwerp and Bukavu doing an exchange project in Tanzania, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    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<\/strong>; short for: Interdisciplinary Studio for Territories in Transition, an interdisciplinary research unit at the\u00a0    Faculty of Design Sciences<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Antwerp bringing students from Suriname<\/strong> and Brazil<\/strong> to Antwerp and vice versa. They have a wonderful website showing the different research projects. https:\/\/www.istt.be\/en\/projects<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


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    Images of a city mapping research project in Borgerhout with students from Suriname and Brazil<\/em>, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    On campus, we created spaces for dialogue around media and global issues; like our powerful discussion evening on the television documentary     The Afro-European<\/a><\/em> and a film screening of Made in Ethiopia<\/a><\/em> in collaboration with 11.11.11. Pictures on our Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Panel discussion about the television series ‘Afro-Europeaan’ at the University of Antwerp, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    Aside all these wonderful in-person encounters, we also have our online project: Global Pen Friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, what is Global Pen Friends?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Global Pen Friends<\/strong> is a letter exchange project between students from nine universities<\/strong> in India, Suriname, Nicaragua, Brazil, DR Congo, Morocco, and Belgium<\/strong>. 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)<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This year marks the 4th edition<\/strong> of the project, and every year, it\u2019s 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\u2019s participants described it beautifully:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe project gave me a renewed interest in writing and corresponding; something I hadn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Nabami and Ananya, two Pen Friends that had the opportunity to meet each other in real life in 2024. Full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Meet This Year\u2019s Pen Friends<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We are so happy to introduce the twelve brilliant students who took part in this year\u2019s edition of Global Pen Friends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n