Ten members of UNamur's academic and scientific staff, accompanied by the International Relations Department and the NGO FUCID, the University Forum for International Development Cooperation, took part in an exploratory mission co-organized with UCAD. The mission was part of the university's drive to strengthen partnerships with the South, by promoting exchanges, raising researchers' awareness of the issues facing the global South, and helping new projects to emerge.

For a week, several activities were organized to enable members of the delegation to discover the Senegalese university: a visit to UCAD and discovery of its issues, exchanges around the concept of "One Health", meetings between researchers, a field visit and a closing moment in the presence of institutional partners.

Catherine Linard, professor at the Faculty of Sciences, was part of the Namur delegation "Going on site and exchanging with our Senegalese colleagues is very important. It allows us to discover the wealth of their research, in fields often directly connected to realities on the ground," she explains.

Since 2015, Catherine Linard has been collaborating with UCAD, notably as part of a research and development project supported by ARES. "From this initial collaboration a number of dynamics were born. Several Senegalese PhD students have come to Belgium to pursue their research. And conversely, one of my Belgian PhD students, Camille Morlighem, who is working on the creation of malaria risk maps in Senegal, has been able to benefit from mobility grants for research stays at UCAD. We've also established teaching exchanges: I went to Dakar to give a week's training to PhD students in geography, and a fellow health geographer, Aminata Niang Diène, comes to Belgium every year to speak in one of my master's courses," continues the professor.

The delegation brought together profiles from several UNamur faculties and departments:

• Francesca Cecchet, Faculty of Science, President of the NISM (Namur Institute of Structured Matter) Research Institute and member of the (NaRILIS Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences)
• Laurent Houssiau, Faculty of Science and member of the NISM (Namur Institute of Structured Matter) Research Institute
• Charles Nicaise, Faculty of Medicine and President of the NaRILIS Research Institute (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences)
• Denis Saint-Amand, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and member of the NaLTT Research Institute (Namur Institute of Language, Text and Transmediality)
• Laurent Ravez, Faculties of Medicine and Science and member of the NaRILiS (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences) and EsPhiN (Espace Philosophique de Namur)
• Anne Vermeyen, member of the Cellule bien-être animal
• Flora Musuamba, Faculty of Medicine and member of the NaRILIS Research Institute (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences)
• Florence Georges, Faculty of Law and member of the NaDI (Namur Digital Institute)
• Nathanaël Laurent, Faculty of Science and member of the EsPhiN (Espace Philosophique de Namur)
• Catherine Linard, Faculty of Science and member of the NaRILIS (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences) and ILEE (Institute of Life-Earth-Environment)
• Rita Rixen, Director of FUCID, the University Forum for International Development Cooperation
• Amélie Schnock, member of the International Relations Department

Cet article est tiré de la rubrique "Far Away" du magazine Omalius de septembre 2024.

Professor in the Department of Sciences, Philosophies and Societies, Laurent Ravez is multiplying his collaborations with Madagascar. In 2005, he took part in an American research project funded by the National Institutes of Health. The aim? To train healthcare professionals in ethics. "The United States needed to establish ethics committees all over the world," Laurent Ravez explains. "This project began in the Democratic Republic of Congo before expanding to Madagascar. When I arrived in Madagascar in 2009, it was a real culture shock for me. I already knew Africa, but this is a different Africa, at the intersection of various cultures, including Asian influences," he confides. "On site, we worked with a public health institute, then a research center in the field of infectious diseases. For almost 15 years, we introduced groups of researchers and doctors to this discipline. This led to the creation of new ethics committees and the strengthening of existing ones."

This first contact with Madagascar paved the way for new projects. "ARES-CDD proposed that I join a research project via institutional support at the University of Antananarivo", continues the professor. Institutional support aims to provide a university with the resources it needs to achieve its own objectives. "Here, the aim is to build capacity and boost the university's research. So we've been working with doctoriales, which enable PhD students to present their projects in a few minutes, share them with their colleagues, and thus stimulate research. Our presence allows us to contribute our experience and advice, but it's a real sharing of skills with the locals," insists Laurent Ravez.

Deeply attached to Madagascar, Laurent Ravez travels there several times a year. "It was during one of my trips that I was offered the chance to go and meet Father Pedro," he recounts. "He's a very inspiring man, who has enabled thousands of destitute people to get out of poverty, notably by building schools and a free university. He is convinced that education and work enable people to free themselves from poverty".

Still in the brainstorming stage, a new collaboration could soon see the light of day. "I taught bioethics in the northwest of the country, where I had the opportunity to work with a Faculty of Dentistry. Dentition in Madagascar is of particular concern, and this has repercussions on people's health or even their ability to find work," exposes the professor. "On the island, dentists are quite badly regarded by the population, perceived as being contemptuous. The idea would then be to raise the ethical awareness of these health professionals, while developing a dental prevention project with them," enthuses the researcher.

"Our aim is therefore to assess the toxicity of microplastics present in Madagascan rivers, by measuring their impact on zebrafish. We thus seek to demonstrate whether abnormalities occur when these fish are exposed to microplastics, and we try to determine whether these abnormalities persist or resolve in subsequent years."

To conduct this research, Andry Rabezanahary divides his time between Madagascar, where he collects water and sediment samples, and Namur, where he carries out the analyses. "Microplastic is collected using a plankton net, left in the river for 4 to 5 hours. We then characterize the microplastics to observe their degradation in the environment. The particles are then micronized to sizes ranging from 1 to 50 micrometers, and exposed to fish. The aim of these experiments is to determine whether microplastics are capable of crossing the fish's intestinal barriers, spreading through their bodies and potentially causing disease.

Seven years ago, a project to support the implementation of the IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management) approach in Madagascar with a view to sustainable development and climate resilience was launched in collaboration between UNamur, UClouvain, UAntananarivo, UAntsiranana and UToamasina. This project, funded by ARES under the name GIRE SAVA, focuses on the SAVA region, located in the north-east of Madagascar. Its ambition is to examine several key aspects of water management, including hydrological alterations, water quality, hydrogeological alterations and the implementation of an information system as part of water management.

"As a researcher in the GIRE SAVA project, I work mainly on water quality in the project's pilot basin: the Ankavia watershed. I'm exploring how anthropization of the basin, i.e. the transformation of the environment by human action, affects the physico-chemical quality of the water in the Ankavia river, as well as invertebrate and diatom communities in the water. We are also trying to assess how quickly the river manages to decompose the organic matter discharged into the water by conducting in-situ experiments", explains Hélène Voahanginirina, PhD student.

The laboratory work was carried out in Madagascar in close collaboration with a team in Namur, under the direction of Professor Frederik de Laender, promoter of the research project. Camille Carpentier, an expert in macroinvertebrate identification, played a key role in these analyses. The aim of this research was to analyze macroinvertebrate composition at ten different sites, at various times of the year, in order to develop a predictive model of community diversity. A model that would be based on several predictive factors, such as land use, landscape type, as well as various physico-chemical variables, such as water acidity and temperature.

This article is taken from the "Issues" section of the September 2024 issue of Omalius magazine.

Akamasoa, which means "Good Friends" in Malagasy, was born out of our revolt at the inhuman situation in which thousands of outcasts found themselves in the streets and on the edge of a rubbish dump in Tananarive. At the time, our aim was the social reintegration of the homeless in and around the Malagasy capital. Today, our main objectives are to provide emergency aid, accompany families wishing to return to their place of origin, send children to school, provide health care, build decent housing, create jobs, provide vocational training, welcome the homeless, provide access to drinking water and energy, respect the environment, ensure hygiene and cleanliness, organize sports activities... finally, we invite the people we welcome to rediscover the power of the Spirit. Today, Akamasoa represents 35 years of fighting extreme poverty and defending human dignity. All this could only be done with faith, passion, strength and perseverance.

Education is essential. It's at school that we learn how to live together, the art of respecting each other, helping each other, forgiving each other, working.... In Madagascar, we have a proverb that says "Ny fanahy no mahaolona", which means "it's the spirit that makes the person". It's not wealth, knowledge or diplomas. It's the spirit that makes each person unique. Without that spirit, we are empty. At Akamasoa, school is compulsory for all children. We instill in them fundamental values such as hard work, education and discipline, which are essential for integrating into society and breaking out of poverty. By giving them the keys to education, we offer them the opportunity to build their own future and become agents of change.

I'm revolted. How can I not be? How can you not be outraged to see children's rights trampled on? Who isn't outraged to see malnourished children wandering the streets hungry, children who don't go to school, who can't take care of themselves, who don't have a decent home? But when I'm faced with thousands of children, each more beautiful and smiling than the next, I can't be discouraged. I'm here to help the generation that will follow us to live with more dignity. As long as I can do something, I want to take part in everything that makes up this social life. I've realized that where there's will and faith, there's also a solution.

We are citizens of the same land. Our Malagasy and African brothers and sisters are sometimes out of breath. That's why they're invading the citadel of Europe. It's up to us to react, to know how to welcome with a brotherly heart all those people of good will who respect the country they arrive in, who come in all simplicity to build a better life in the Earth that God created for all humans. It's never easy to come out of our ivory towers, where everything is easy and clear. Certainly sharing life with people from other civilizations, religions and customs, won't be easy.

But we're all human first. Before being citizens of a particular country on Earth we all have the right to freedom, equality and happiness. Together we can build a world in which, in a few centuries' time, it will be totally natural to say: I'm from planet Earth. You who are listening to me testify to this experience of daily struggle, you have the power to do this where you live, where you work, in your usual place because that's where the truth that's inside you will express itself.

In 2018, I had received the insignia of Doctor Honoris Cause from the Private University of Argentina. So this is the second time for me, but I'm no less surprised that people are interested in our work. It is to the Malagasy people, who have welcomed me as a brother and friend, that I want to dedicate it as a sign of friendship and in a spirit of fraternity.

Ce vendredi 27 janvier 2023 se tenait le colloque interconfessionnel et interdisciplinaire organisé par la Chaire Universitaire Notre-Dame de la Paix. Des représentants des trois grandes religions monothéistes (christianisme, islam, judaïsme) et de nombreux scientifiques ont pris la parole dans le cadre du colloque "Les spiritualités au 21e siècle : quelques coups de projecteur" afin de partager avec plus de 170 participants leur point de vue sur les courants spirituels qui animent notre monde. 

Nicolas Monseu, président de l’institut Esphin, s’est réjoui « de la diversité des courants religieux représentés et de la présence de personnalités qui contribuent au dialogue interreligieux indispensable aujourd’hui ». L’UNamur accueillait en effet le Grand Rabbin de Belgique Albert Guigui et le Cheikh Khaled Bentounes, Guide spirituel de la Tariqa Alawiyya.

Des discussions riches, qui ont aussi permis d’aborder la manière dont les spiritualités répondent aux grandes questions de société aujourd’hui : la place des femmes, la culture du numérique, la culture techno-scientifique… Les intervenants et intervenantes d’horizons et d’origines diverses, philosophes, théologiens, informaticiens, anthropologues, ingénieurs, laïcs ou religieux, ont chacun contribué à donner un éclairage différent et complémentaire sur ces thématiques.

La Rectrice Annick Castiaux a souligné l’importance de ce colloque pour l’UNamur : « Nous avons la conviction que les sujets abordés aujourd’hui sont extrêmement importants, aussi pour le monde universitaire. Dans un monde où les réponses apportées aux défis de notre temps sont soit technocratiques, soit idéologiques, il manque souvent la question du sens. Or aucune solution purement technique et aucun discours exclusivement politique ou idéologique ne rassurent aujourd’hui les jeunes sur l’avenir de notre société. L’UNamur souhaite intégrer davantage la question du sens et de la spiritualité à ses enseignements ». C’est dans cette optique que l’UNamur a rejoint le réseau Universitate, intégrant une dimension de service et de réflexivité à plusieurs cours. Le réseau Universitate et la Chaire Notre-Dame de la Paix soulignent également le lien de l’UNamur avec la Compagnie de Jésus. Plusieurs experts jésuites ont également pris la parole le 27 janvier.

La 2e journée du colloque s'est tenue à l'abbaye de Maredsous le 20 mars 2023 dans le cadre du centenaire du décès de l'abbé de Maredsous Dom Columba Marmion, dont la spiritualité avait nourri la plupart des participants au Concile Vatican II.

Photo ci-dessus : les organisateurs et intervenants de la 1re session du colloque du 27 janvier. De g. à dr. : Ferdinand Poswick (abbaye de Maredsous et Musée Nam-IP), Laura Rizzerio (UNamur), Bernard Lorent (abbé de Maredsous), Khaled Bentounes (guide spirituel de la Tariqa Alawiyya), Annick Castiaux (Rectrice UNamur), Albert Guigui (Grand Rabbin de Belgique), Jacques Scheuer s.j. (UCLouvain), Françoise Mies (UNamur) et Dominique Lambert (UNamur).