UNIVERSITY FOR REFUGEES
EDUCATION WITHOUT BOUNDARIES - Information Desk for Refugees and Immigrants

The Partners

This initiative, promoted by the Rector of UNINETTUNO University Prof. Maria Amata Garito,is the result of the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed on October 21, 2015 by the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO and the International Movement UNITI PER UNIRE.

The partnership is open to any institution willing to develop an internatonal network to support refugees and immigrants in all the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Area.

The International Telematic University UNINETTUNO was founded based on the model of NETTUNO - Network per l'università ovunque (existing in Italy since 1992) and especially thanks to the success of the European project Med Net'U, Mediterranean Network of Universities (2002-2006), funded by the European Commission in the framework of the EUMEDIS Programme and coordinated by NETTUNO. This project involved 31 universities and Vocational Training Centres from 11 countries of the Mediterranean basin (Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, France, Italy, Morocco, and Syria). The most significant result of the Med Net'U project is the realisation of a technological network, based on satellite technology for transmission and reception, which connects 11 Production Centres and 31 Technological Poles of UNINETTUNO located at the universities of the Arab world countries and other countries of the Mediterranean area. To capitalize and extend the results obtained and political and institutional consent generated by the Med Net'U Project, the partners, Ministers and universities of the Euro-Mediterranean countries have approved the development of a distance teaching multilingual system.

This has occurred in the Informal Meeting of Education Ministers “Building a Euro-Mediterranean Space of higher education” held in Catania on November 6-7-8, 2003 and in the Conference of Catania 2 “Euro-Mediterranean Space of Higher education and Research” held on January 18-19, 2005, where the decision to implement the system of an International Euro-Mediterranean Distance University with the purpose of creating a Euro-Mediterranean Area for higher education was taken.

In the implementation of the political will of the Mediterranean governments, the then Italian Minister of Education, University and Scientific Research Letizia Moratti, with the decree of April 15, 2005 established the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO, turning the Med Net'U from project to system.

With the Declaration of Catania 3 “Euro-Mediterranean Space of Higher education and Research” signed on January 29, 2006, fourteen Ministers of the Euro-Mediterranean countries agreed to “strengthen the distance learning system, developing the results already obtained by the Med Net'U Project, to promote wider access to education and training in a perspective of lifelong learning” through the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO. In the course of the same Conference Catania 3, the Ministers of the different countries of the Arab world and of Europe have inaugurated the first academic year of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO.

The technological network has led to the creation of a network of people and intelligences that know how to connect and share their knowledge. They have developed together a virtual space for higher education and the circulation of knowledge in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

Thanks to this network (the only one of this type existing in the Euro-Mediterranean area for the distance learning) all the partners can produce, broadcast and receive didactic content. This content is available:  1) through the Internet on the didactic portal www.uninettunouniversity.net   - the only portal in the world where you can learn in 5 languages: Italian, Arabic, English, French and Greek; 2) through television on uninettunouniversity.tv (SKY 812 and RAISAT 701) that has already been broadcasting for many years the academic videolessons in the framework of Degree courses in Arabic, English, French, and Italian.

The main strength of UNINETTUNO certainly lays in its ability to integrate into and grow rapidly at the international level. Its students are from 140 countries of the world.

The internationalization of access to knowledge is an active tool of international cooperation of UNINETTUNO. Many agreements have been signed by the governments and by the universities of the many countries of the Arab world: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Tunisia and Iraq. Thanks to these agreements, UNINETTUNO has become the only on-line university reality in the world with shared curricula and recognized titles in the Arab countries.

UNINETTUNO is more than just a university: it is committed to fighting illiteracy in some areas of the world. An example is the course “I Learn Arabic - The Treasure of the Letters”, created by Maria Amata Garito and Rachid Benhadj, and aimed at teaching how to read and write in Arabic on television to the adult illiterate population in Morocco through a new pedagogical model. This course is still broadcast on the first national television network of Morocco, and a Canadian television and other television stations in the world will soon broadcast it.

In recent years, UNINETTUNO has also developed a distance course aimed at teaching Italian to foreigners. Furthermore, establishing four Technological Centres in Iraq within the framework of the EDICT project – Enterprise Development through Information and Communication Technologies, realized in collaboration with UNIDO – United Nations Industrial Development Organization – of Vienna, with the purpose of transferring the skills of entrepreneurship to the young Iraqi generations.

The Technological Poles of the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO in the countries of the Arab world are: Baghdad Ministry of Industry and Minerals (Iraq), Bassora - Iraqi Federation of Industries - Basra Branch (Iraq), Erbil - KRG Ministry of Trade and Industry (Iraq), Thi Qar - Chamber of Commerce (Iraq), Cairo - Helwan University (Egypt), Cairo - Istituto Salesiano Don Bosco (Egypt), Tunis - Tunis Virtual University UVT (Tunisia), Rabat - Secretariat D’Etat Chargé De L’Alphabetisation Et De L’Education (Morocco), Ifrane - Al Akhawayn University (Morocco), Institut Supérieur de Gestion et de Planification (Algeria), Université Djillal Liabès de Sidi-bel-Abbès (Algeria), Cairo University (Egypt), Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan), Yarmouk University (Jordan), Université Cadi Ayyad (Morocco), Université Ibn Zohr (Morocco), Université Mohammed V Souissi (Morocco), University of Aleppo (Syria), Damascus University (Syria), Syrian Virtual University (Syria), Ministère de l'Education et de la Formation - CENAFFIF (Tunisia), Ministère des technologies de la communication - SEII (Tunisia), Institut National de Bureautique et de Micro-Informatique - INBMI (Tunisia), Université Virtuelle de Tunis (Tunisia), Ege University (Turkey).

UNITI per UNIRE ( www.unitiperunire.org ) is a constructive and unifying reality, founded in 2012 , thanks to the support of 500 founding members, the main of which are the Co-mai (Community of the Arab World in Italy) - established in 2008 - and the AMSI (Association of Foreign Origin Physicians in Italy), founded in 2001. It is a transversal, inter-professional and international movement that is active in Italy and abroad in different fields: healthcare, health and social care exchange, professional update, international cooperation, inter-religious dialogue, inter-cultural dialogue and education.

Thanks to the concrete and constant volunteer work that involved all the medical staff and all the health professionals, UNITI per UNIRE has achieved the goal to promote a real integration of health and social care staff (physician, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, specialists, technicians, students etc.). The above-mentioned foreign workers in Italy have found with UNITI per UNIRE and AMSI the most suitable solutions to obtain protection, dignity, and recognition of the different professionals that have encouraged the entry into the world of work in Italy and abroad.

The commitment of the UNITI per UNIRE aims to offer a modern service adapted to the continuous transformations of an increasingly multicultural and complex society. In this commitment, UNITI per UNIRE has always engaged in dialogue and continues to do so with the different institutions, political forces, media, medical associations, scientific centres, professional registers, foreign communities and Embassies of the different countries.    

The Association of Foreign Origin Physicians in Italy (AMSI) (www.amsimed.org), since its establishment in 2001, has achieved in the last 14 years a number of concrete initiatives in favour of dialogue among peoples through the tangible tool of international cooperation, represented by the Medicine and Healthcare. The work of the AMSI is essentially based on the integration of foreign physicians in Italy and aims to facilitate their interaction with the Italian and foreign institutions, including Embassies and professional Associations.

AMSI has always collaborated with the Italian institutions for the resolution of problems of physicians, health professionals and foreign origin citizens. The association was also engaged on issues related to health emergency and humanitarian aid in Libya. In Gaza and in Tira in Israel the AMSI has signed agreements with the local authorities with the purpose of building the First Aid and Emergency Centre: “l’Ospedale Italia per la pace“ (Hospital Italy for peace).

The community of the Arab World in Italy (Co-mai) (www.co-mai.org) is a non-profit association, born from the intent to be a tool of dialogue and cooperation, addressed to all, working for the promotion and understanding of Arab culture and social-cultural integration and to providing proposals, data, statistics, reflections and research on the Arab world and phenomenon of immigration in Italy. The Co-mai has supported through its 12 committees numerous initiatives in favour of the defence of human rights, expressing its solidarity to all the citizens of Arab and African countries (Palestinians, Libyans, Yemeni, Syrians, Iraqis and Somalis) that live in dramatic and painful situations due to the protracted wars in the Middle East.

The main results obtained are: the integration of Foreign Professionals through the recognition of qualifications acquired abroad and their registration in the professional registers; the health and social care exchange through the creation of distance learning courses and use of tele-medicine; the obtaining of the practice of circumcision of foreign origin children at the public clinics (ASL) of the Lazio Region; the medical care for the immigrants at the AMSI clinics for foreigners in agreement with the public clinics (ASL) of different areas of Rome since 2001; the humanitarian missions and sending of medicines and medical staff in war zones (Israel and Palestinian territories), the collaboration with the Department of Health of the Arab League in Egypt and the Association of Arabs Rescuers in Jerusalem.