The construction of this new building responds to one of the four objectives that make up the project, which also includes an Applied Research Center that allows the exchange of information with sector professionals, internationally, as well as a podiatry laboratory and another for other specialized practices.
With the construction of this new building, the UDB takes an important step forward, becoming the first university in El Salvador with a building built according to LEED parameters (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - At the forefront of environmental and energy design), a paradigm based on the adoption of aspects related to energy efficiency, the use of alternative energy sources, the improvement of the internal environmental quality, efficiency in water consumption, sustainable development of the available land spaces, and the choice of ecological materials.
Another phase will include updating the technological infrastructure of the existing orthotic and prosthetic laboratories, as well as the movement and walking analysis laboratory. Similarly, the Applied Research Center will be equipped with the technology necessary for the exchange of knowledge and experience with specific physical and academic rehabilitation centers identified in the United States and Latin America.
The project was developed together with "Salesian Missions", the Salesian Mission Office of New Rochelle, and then presented to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA), which approved the project and allocated the funds for its execution - to which, however, UDB itself also made an important contribution.
In this 2021, the "Universidad Don Bosco" celebrates 25 years of training professionals in orthoses and prostheses. In this quarter of a century it has trained 492 national professionals from all over Latin America, Angola, and the Balkan region, through Baccalaureate, Technical and Degree courses in Orthoses and Prosthetics offered both in-person and via distance learning. Its past pupils today work and are appreciated in El Salvador and around the world.
Erika Vanessa Méndez
