Among the activities carried out in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions, are the Schools of Social and Territorial Management, training for public officials and talks open to the community.

The University of La Serena, through the Inclusive Projects Management Team, has been awarded over the last two years, funds from the Territorial Inclusive Participation Program of the National Disability Service (SENADIS), to be executed in the Atacama and Coquimbo a series of products aimed at promoting the full social inclusion of people with disabilities.

One of the actions implemented are the Schools of Social and Territorial Management (EGST), defined as training courses for leadership and the strengthening of skills and practical knowledge on territorial and social management, and whose purpose is to strengthen, through social empowerment , political and cultural, to organizations of and for people with disabilities belonging to each region and the development of skills for associativity.

During the months of July and August, the ULS Inclusive Projects Team developed two Social and Territorial Management Schools, one of them in the Freirina commune and the other, of a provincial nature, held in the city of La Serena, with the participation of organizations from La Higuera, Coquimbo, Vicuña and the regional capital.

Another of the initiatives implemented is the training of public officials and they are based on the premise that the generation of empowered citizens through the Schools of Social and Territorial Management requires counterparts in public services that have the skills necessary to guarantee and facilitate inclusion. This is taken as a strategy to level the knowledge and tools in terms of social inclusion from the legal perspective, contributing to the reduction of the barriers faced by people with disabilities, their families and communities in their own territories.

The objective of these trainings is to promote the development of skills in public officials that allow them to guarantee and facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities, contributing to the reduction of barriers and guaranteeing their inclusion in the formulation of local policies.

During these months, training was carried out for public officials, also in the Freirina commune, and another for officials of the Community Mental Health Center of the Las Compañías sector. Currently, the Team is developing these products in the communities of Chañaral and Salamanca.

Regarding the activities in Freirina, the coordinator of the ULS Inclusive Projects Team, Karla Rivera, stated that participating in this instance "has been super gratifying as a team, because we found a quite empowered civil society, eager to participate, very committed municipal officials to improve their services”, also highlighting the presence of authorities, such as the mayor and the councilors of the commune.


For his part, the mayor of Freirina, César Orellana, highlighted the completion of this training, noting that it has allowed municipal officials to acquire knowledge to "deliver a better service, particularly to our people who suffer from some level of disability" (see video of the activity here ).

In parallel, there have been talks open to the community in the communes of Río Hurtado, La Higuera and Salamanca, called: "Disability from the perspective of Human Rights".

All these actions are framed within the vision of the University of La Serena which, as the only state university in the Coquimbo Region, has acquired a strong commitment in recent years to contribute to cultural change, fostering a culture of respect for diversity. as a substantial aspect to build a society with greater social justice.