Young people in the town of La Pintana, not far from Santiago, have decided to replace "mechoneo violento" with its demeaning rituals that are often performed in these circumstances, with a new, rewarding version of this tradition based on solidarity and fraternity. Concretely, on Tuesday 22 March, 50 freshmen and students of the first year of the Catholic University "Silva Henríquez" with the assistance of the Office of Student Affairs, organized a solidarity event that included cleaning and recreational initiatives.
The activity began at the Central House, with a greeting from the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Fernando Vergara Henríquez. He encouraged the young people and congratulated them for organizing "this traditional initiative, launched in 2005 by UCSH and then taken up by other universities nationwide."
On the importance of this initiative, José Alegría, Director of the Salesian University, noted that "what distinguishes us is a student who is able to take the lead in a social activity in solidarity with and for the benefit of the community."
The young people, for their part, were fully convinced and motivated to participate in the activity and in all the operations to be carried out on the field, and they performed the scheduled tasks successfully.
The town of La Pintana welcomes thousands of people who have migrated from their hometowns in search of horizons economically less dramatic and difficult. It is for them that the university students organized this "mechoneo solidale".
