Meet Pablo Y. Mendívil, the SAAM Logistics Manager!
Pablo Y. Mendívil, SAAM Project Logistics Manager at Mundus, is behind each of the mobilities that are carried out, ensuring that they are all completed successfully and solving any logistical problems that may arise during the trip. Let’s find out what his day to day at work is like!
What is the logistics process of a mobility? Where does your task start and where does it end?
The logistic process, literally speaking, starts at the very beginning, when it is out of reach for us. But my job starts when we have an established group of students with a certain destination and time period.
The mobility process has 4 main stages, roughly: pre-visa stage, pre-departure stage, mobility stage and post-mobility stage. In the pre-visa stage, my role is to make sure that all the documents are obtained –not really to obtain them– but for the group to apply for the visa. In the pre-departure stage, my role is to try to get the best itinerary, and its tickets, for the group to go to its mobility destination, and return. The mobility and post-mobility stages are calmer for us, and we only have to wait and help if any inconvenience arises. Plus, we are on call when the groups or peers are traveling.
Briefly describe a common day of the Logistic manager of SAAM.
I wake up at 7am, then…(laughs). It’s just really a lot of emails, video and phone calls, and spreadsheets; nothing fancy, and it varies depending on the time of the year. When it’s mobility time, the job centers on researching visa requirements, asking people for stamped PDFs and looking for travel options. When it’s more meeting time it’s practically the same, but also asking our hosts who know the places for options.
And if the question is about my schedule… it is very variable but starts at 9 am reading the afternoon and evening emails and from there on answering them, checking on the state of the mobility processes and coordinating with Sergio and Begoña on future steps.
What has been the most difficult VISA to obtain so far?
The most difficult visas to obtain have been the ones that we have not managed to (yet): Cameroon to Spain and Kenya to Greece.
The most difficult visa to been successfully obtained is the visa for Malian students going to Portugal. Portugal does not have an embassy in Mali, so they had to apply in the French embassy, who in that time was not accepting other countries applications, so the only solution was to travel to Algiers, which is exactly as far away as the final mobility destination (2,900 km). Given that the established way was impossible to implement, and after a really, really, really long set of phone calls, Dutch embassy helped us out and granted the visas.
In most of the visited countries at least they had heard about SAAM
How important is the support of the institutions and maintaining fluid contact with embassies, consulates or delegations?
The work that the SAAM Team has done over the years before I arrived of visiting African countries and explaining the project to every available diplomat or institution was key to unlocking the way to get all the visas that we have achieved.
In most of the visited countries at least they had heard about SAAM, and problems were coming from the European country rules more than from the embassy itself. Not visited countries have, obviously, been more difficult to work with.
Do you have a preferred mobility that you have organized? One that has been difficult to prepare and that has later been a complete success.
I have already talked about this one, but I didn’t say why. I think of the mobility of Malian students in Portugal as a success, because they went, learned and came back, and a demonstration that there is something really wrong in how we –Europe– issue visas. It was stressful at the time, but that stress built up a tension that was changed into a great deal of satisfaction upon release.
Has anything about your work surprised you?
We have been amazed at the work that the African schools have done in preparing students pre-mobility. We knew they were going to do a good job, but some of them did a brief presentation of their way in the Rome Meeting, and there was really nothing else to add.
What impact do you think the project will have on the future of vocational training in Africa and Europe?
I can only hope that the success of the project impacts EU in that more calls for these type of project are made (as we are seeing). Also, one of the aims of the project is to empower AU VET centres to be autonomous in their projecting mobilities. I hope that by the end of the project we manage at least to make that true.
Besides the vocational training, I also hope that by managing successful mobilities and ending the project in a successful way, embassies will also be more open to educational visas.
What do you feel when you see photos or videos of a mobility that has been achieved in part thanks to your efforts?
Even though my job is not very important in the global scheme, I’m really proud to be participating in something bigger which brings closer educational opportunities to students who wouldn’t, otherwise, be able to participate in such an experience.
As I hardly ever talk with trainees or trainers, seeing the pictures that my colleagues in communication show me, or the ones shared in the coordination groups, fills me with joy. And when there are interviews of trainees telling their experience, then it’s really thrilling.
