Inalco hosts French Volunteer Day

Inalco is honored to have hosted this first French Volunteer Day, which brought together a large number of our long-standing partners (Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, international solidarity and development actors) with whom we collaborate in the fields of training, academic expertise in our fields of specialization, and the professionalization of our students.















Inalco is honored to have hosted this first French Volunteer Day.


The theme of this event, "reciprocity in international volunteering for exchange and solidarity", echoes what forms the core of Inalco's missions open to the world and open to the world:

• we train French and international students, many of whom are destined for careers in the world of international solidarity in all its dimensions;
• we organize cross-mobilities with our work and study areas, which also host our researchers and PhD students;
• in a world that is tending to close in, for researchers and international solidarity players alike, for political and security reasons, this question of reciprocity is now a necessary condition for the implementation of substantial partnerships, particularly in the South, whereas just a few years ago it was a matter of the goodwill of the players.

At Inalco, we are convinced that the path towards substantial reciprocity is both necessary to maintain expertise on spaces that are closing in and to maintain a link with them. This reciprocity is not possible without an understanding of the Other, its languages, its contexts... We are working to make our contribution to this edifice through the hundred or so languages we teach as an entry point to understanding the socio-political contexts and cultures where they are spoken.



In the opposite direction, we are also working on this by developing a policy of welcome and reciprocity: through the development of FLE, by setting up programs like the DU Passerelle to facilitate the integration of people in exile situations, or the DU Hospitalité, Médiations, Migrations (H2M) to train people in migratory situations to work as interpreters; in addition to the classic master's-level courses in international relations, international solidarity and intercultural communication.



Speech by Delphine Allès, vice-president of Inalco, at the inauguration of the JVF on October 2, 2023.